SCHIZOPHRENIA
by Timelessdemon
Summary: Being a evil boy genius has it's draw backs, when certain mental health problems compromise your ability to tell the difference between fantasy and reality... The full chapter 14 is finally up!
1. Chapter 1

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own everything... thats why Xiaolin Showdown isn't on anymore, I wasted all the production money on a racing horse named Betsy.**

* * *

Jack lay on his bed staring blankly up at the black ceiling above him. He should be up already, fixing his Jack-bots for the next fight with the Xiaolin monks. But he couldn't, some days were worse than others and this happened to be a worse one. He shivered and attempted to shut the whispering voices out, putting his hands over his ears, the voices only seemed grow louder in responce, the black wall surrounding him began to swirl and move in and out mocking him, threatening to inclose and crush him to death.

Jack whimpered slightly, closed his eyes and folded his arms behind his head so that he could secretly place his hand over ears (hopefully blocking out some of whispering) while at the same time, looking like he was asleep so that if Wuya came in she would just think he was being lazy and yell at him.

Jack knew he was schizophrenic, he'd been diagonized with it when he was 11. His parents had come home to find their home looking like the insides had spontaneously exploded, (their precious possessions had been flung and/or destroyed throughout the house). They found Jack inside an open walk-in cupboard. He was standing facing to the side while yelling and screaming obsenities at someone or something invisible to them, asking the person 'what the fuck they were doing' and to 'get the hell out of his house'. His parents unable to stop him, and also worried about leaving him home alone (they didn't want to have to dish out more money for anything else he may break or destroy), took him to a hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted into a mental ward.

He shivered at the mere thought of that place, he'd only spent 9 months there and it had still left it's mark. The workers were fakers they hid behind their kind smiles when in clinically sane company but when alone, they could be quite sadistic, especially when he started having what they called an 'episode' (to him it felt more like a whole series) and started screaming because he saw inanimate objects begin to move or talk, usually threatening him.

One time he had a particularly bad 'episode' and started screaming the place down, the worker had quickly grown tired of waiting for Jack to calm down and shoved Jack into a vacant room instead, to beat the hell out of him. When Jack had tried to tell another worker what had happened they just ignored him (Wounds on his body classed as 'self-inflicted'). Eventually, the only way he was able to leave was to hide his schizophrenia, by not overly reacting to anything (it was difficult for him to tell the diffrence what was real or fake).

Jack continued to think (still in his pretending-to-sleep position), the voices had thankfully seemed to have pretty much faded. "Jack!" Came Wuya's nagging voice as she passed through his wall "Wake up you lazy brat! Those wu won't steal themselves!". Jack lazily got up, pretending to yawn, "Yeah yeah you old hag, I'm up!" Jack replied and quickly walked off into his 'lair'.

**A few hours later:**

Jack looked annoyedly at the Jack-bot he'd been working on for the last hour, no matter what, he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. He growled in frustration and threw his spanner at said robot, the spanner bonced off the robot and flew back, narrowly missing hitting Jack across the face. Jack jumped in shock then laughed at the fact he hadn't gotten hit, just at that moment, the oil tank (the part that had gotten hit with the spanner) of the robot exploded and covered Jack's red shirt. "Aww!" muttered Jack wishing he'd worn a less stainable colour.

At that moment Wuya floated in "Jack stop whining about your shirt and fix that bot, I'm sensing the arrival of a new Wu". "That's easy for you to say!" Jack whined "That was my favorite shirt!". "There there" Wuya sighed, eyeing him "I'm sure someone, somewhere cares!". Jack turned and glared at her "You..!.

**At the other side of the house:**

Wuya groaned in annoyance as she heard the so-called boy genius yelling from his 'lair'. "Probably just got his trenchcoat caught in one of those machines again" She muttered to herself, then shrugged "Guess I could do with a laugh" and floated off to go and find him. As she reached the door to his lair she realised he wasn't yelling in pain but _at someone. _What she saw when she floated through the door confused her entirely.

Jack stood with his arm folded across his thin frame glaring at... well actually she didn't know what he was glaring at.

"Did not" silence "Did not". Wuya contiued to watch the one way argument go on for sometime until finally Jack yelled "Did not and you know it Wuya!". 'Wuya?', Wuya inwardly questioned to herself, and floated towards Jack "Snivelling brat" she called "I'm over here!".

"And another thing..." Jack froze in mid argument with the fake Wuya, and saw the real Wuya moving towards him (and of course, he couldn't then tell which was real). Saving himself from trouble, he simply shrugged and turned back to his Jack-bot "Yeah whatever you old hag" He replied to whichever one was real "Just lemme get on with fixing my Jack-bots".

Then 'his favorite part' they both began to nag and ask different questions (knowing he couldn't answer one incase it turned out to be the fake Wuya) he just simply shrugged replying "Yeah sure whatever!". The questions continued and Jack just put his earphones in and ignored them until both Wuya's either disappeared or gave up and floated off.

Once everything was quiet again, Jack took out his earphones and sighed, he hated having schizophrenia, it made things way more complicated than they needed to be. There was no way he could tell anyone, he didn't exactly have any friends, and Wuya would probably use it to her advantage when she decided to switch sides for the hundreth time.

Jack glared at the Jack-bot and snickered to himself "Whether fake or real, in general... life just sucks!"

Wuya continued to watch Jack for a while, it wasn't the first time he'd done something like that and she figured it probably wouldn't be the last. She wanted to ask why but stopped herself, it wasn't like she cared. She shrugged and floated off muttering the word "Teenagers!" as she did so.

* * *

**This was planned as a one shot but may be lengthened, depending on whether any readers take an interest in (i.) this story, **

**Sayonara!**


	2. It gets better then worse

****************

Re-

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own Xiaolin Showdown... But it got taken off air because Omi grew too big to fit his monk outfit... Am just full of crappy excuses, lol.**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

* * *

**In school:**

(Snickers) "And he actually thinks he looks cool with that red hair and black cloak" "Oh my god I know, he's such a retard!", "Gingerbread headed retard!". The 3 kids erupted into muffled laughter. A 10 year old Jack sat a lonely desk with the 3 said kids at a desk behind him. He stared down towards the desk, trying to concentrate more on the maths paper (which he had '25 minutes' to complete), than what the other children in the class were saying about him.

More muffled laughter, Jack sighed and stared down at the question paper _'Question 1: Ok so... I just add 4 14's together and that makes er...'. _"Argh!" Yelled Jack in suprise as something small and round hit and bounce off his shoulder. He glanced back at the table behind him, to see the 3 kids sitting behind him that still laughing and pulling faces at him (he hated them they alwys made him the butt of every joke in school).

"Hey Ginger, open the paper" Snickered the only gone of them. _'Paper?' _Jack confusedly look back to his desk and noticed a crumpled piece of papr _'Probably what hit me'_ Jack thought to himself. Against his best judgement he opened the paper.

It contained a crudely (even by Jack's standards) drawn picture of a little kid stabbing an pretty woman through the stomach, with the words 'To Mrs Halloway, die cunt die! Love from -.' badly writen underneath the picture. Blocking out the mocking voices and laughter behind him, Jack stared confusedly at the picture, it took a few seconds too long to realise exactly what the picture and writing was about, and by then it was just a tad bit too late.

"Mr Jack Spicer!" Jack cringed at the sound of his teacher's voice behind him, and hurridely tryed to hide the paper "Too late Jack, your meant to be doing maths not doodling, hand it over!" Jack looked pleadingly into her eyes "Now!". The 3 children behind him began to snigger, the rest of the class slwoly joining in. Jack sighed sadly knowing exactly what was going to happen, handed her the paper and stared miserably down at his desk. Mrs Hallway looked in shock at the picture "Oh my, oh... Report to the principal's office at once Mr Spicer!". Jack slowly got up from his seat and began to walk towards the door "Hey Gin-ger... Whats going on?" one of the boys who sat behind him asked, giving Jack a fake look of suprise. Jack looked back and glared before walking out the door to the principal's office.

* * *

**At the principle's office:**

"Jack? Jack, are you listening to me?". Jack slowly looked up from the floor he'd been pretending to stare at interestedly for the last 10 minutes while the prinicpal yelled at him. The well dressed 40 something year old sighed, ran his hand through his greying hair and knelt down in front of Jack.

"Look, all we are asking you to do, is just ease up on the practical jokes...", "But I..." Jack intrupted. "Not yet Jack, just let me finish" the prinicipal re-inturrupted, watching at a very miserable looking Jack over his horn rimmed glasses "I understand... I was a young boy boy myself once" _'No way, really?'_ Jack thought sarcastically "And your body and mind are going through changes" Jack's eyes bugged out "Your going to begin to take an interest in girls and want them to notice you too. However, calling them names such as 'cunt' will not help matters, now do we understand each other?".

"Yeah but", The prinicipal got up and ushered Jack onwards the door "Now because of the severity of this matter, I called in your parents but apparently their still on a businness trip, so you sitter is going to come in and take you home instead". Jack was unable to explain what really happened and just had to once again take the blame for what someone else had done.

* * *

**At Spicer mansion, in Jack's bedroom:**

Jack sat in his (then) white walled bedroom, enfusiastically playing what looked to be the sega megadrive version of Sonic. The little blue hedgehog darted across the screen avoiding numerous mechanical cretaures, and got hit by a wasp like creature. "Crud!" Yelled Jack "No! nononononono Nooooo!" Sonic attempted to gain back some rings but got shot by another wasp type creature and died. Jack threw the controller to the floor in annoyance and glared at the black screen with the words 'gameover' based in the center of the screen. He flopped back on the bed he had been using for a chair and closed his eyes. It wasn't fair, he had no friends, his teachers didn't believe him that he was getting bullied, his parents didn't care (they were always too busy going off on business trips) and (Stomach gurgles) he was hungry, his sitter should have given him dinner a while ago...

Jack got up, walked through the long and elaboratly decorated hallway and snook down the stairs. The living room door was open a crack and through the crack he could his sitter (Sophia) sitting on his parent's 1000 dollar leather sofa, munching a chicken leg and laughing at something on tv, spraying bits of chicken as she did so. Jack hung back uncomfortably by the door, he didn't really want to go in but (gurgle, he clutched his noisy stomach) it was 7:00pm and he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast (The school had chucked him out before lunch and Sophia had sent him to his bedroom as soon as they got home).

Taking in a breath he slowly opened the door and walked in, Sophia immediatly stopped laughing, gulped down her chicken and glared at Jack. "What is it?" She snapped and pointed her 'perfectly manicured finger' towards Jack "I thought I'd sent you to bed!". Jack cringed uncomfortably "Its just... I'm hungry, I...I haven't eaten since breakfast". "Well then you should have thought about that before you called your teacher a cunt!" Jack lowered his head B-but I".

"Listen Jack" Sophia intrupted calmly "Look at me" Jack slowly lifted his head to face her "Do you know why your parents leave you alone? It's because you are a discusting, selfish little brat who doesn't care for anyone but himself, the only reason they didn't throw you away at birth is that no one else wanted you, you're repulsive and defective... you're a freak! Now go to bed!".

* * *

**Back in Jack's bedroom:**

Jack sat on the floor holding a toy dinosaur in each hand, prentending to play with them but not really watching what he was doing. _'My parents love me, their just away alot of the time cause... It's not me, it's not my fault I'm not...'_ Tears began to fall down the ten year old's face and he quickly attempted to wipe them away.

**'There there Jack it's okay, it's okay to cry sometimes!',** "Huh?" Said Jack, hastily wiping his nose with his sleeve "Wh-who said that?" **'I did Jack'** The strangely accented female voice replied. **'I've been watching you for a while now, there's no need to be afraid, I want to be with you..'**. Jack glanced around "Where are you" **'I'm right up here Jack, in your head, my name is Adria and as long as I'm around you'll never be alone again'.**

And for the next year it was just like that, life was perfect, (He began to be able to visually see Adria, even though she was more like a small dark outline/figure of a girl his age (it was impossible to see her features). Adria taught him that it didn't matter what others thought and also helped him feel more comfortable around others (He still didn't have any school friends but he could at least communicate easier with others). She also helped him further his interest in mechanics, persuading him to read up and work on different machines (his first invention being a kettle which froze water instead of boiled it, he wasn't too sure how exactly it was useful, but Adria said it was brilliant all the same).

They celebrated his 11th birthday party together (his parents away on yet another business trip, and his sitter Sophia rarely even bothering to even show up to take 'care' of him anymore). It was the best birthday he'd ever had, they'd tried to make lemon cake for his birthday, though it backfired when Jack forgot to put the lid on the food mixer. But they'd still had fun, spending the next hour or so chasing each other round the mansion while flinging sticky pieces of uncooked lemon cake at each other.

For Jack it was perfect, everything was perfect, until one day it all changed.

* * *

**At Spicer Mansion:**

"Adria? Am home!" Jack called out into the empty house as he took of his school backpack and flung it into the kitchen (They'd both decided is was best for Adria to stay home while he was at school, lest people begin to question why he was repititively talking to a person invisible to them). Jack walked through the dark hallway, into the living room and flicked on the light. "Adria? Hellooo?" **'Hello Jacky' **replied a cold male voice.

"What?" Jack spun around to see something shift in the shadows of the hallway. "Who are you?", **'I'm your worst nightmare, don't even bother worrying about Adria, shes long gone'.** "What? What the hell did you do to her?", **'I didn't do anything'. **The figure in the shadows appeared to chuckle slightly **'She left of her own accord, couldn't stand the sight of you I'm afraid, yet meeting you, I 'can quite' understand why'**. "You... your wrong she wouldn't leave, What did you do to her" The figure sighed dramatically **'You'll soon find that it's not truly 'you' who is in control- Send them in!' **

Someone muttered something, no it wasn't just one it was hundreds some whispering, others screaming (impossible to hear what any one voice was saying). Jack clamped his hands over his ears but still heard them "What is this?" He yelled over the noise, the horribly cold voice chuckled once more **'Its all the evil, cruel or unkind things you have ever heard, said, done or even thought all rolled into one-Why I do hope you like it Jacky?'**

"Why you...!" Jack lunged at the shadows and his vision suddenly plunged into darkness he looked quickly back at the lit living room, he couldn't see it, he was blind. Jack growled in frustration "What did you..." **'Temper temper my boy'** the voice chuckled close to his ear **'you wanted to take a swing at me, well I'm right next to you!'** Jack punched to his right and his fist connected painfully with the wall of the hallway.

**'Oh dear'** tutted the voice **'I really did mean your 'left' side' **Witout faltering, Jack swung a second punch to his left knocking over a table and smashing something or other (he couldn't see what). 'You really are too slow' The voice taunted Jack growled and began to throw punches and kicks towards the annoying and taunting voice.

After a what seemed like hours, he was finally too tired to continue. He frantically felt his way across the wall, atempting to find someway out of the house (the mansion was very big, and the blind fight had really disorientated him) away from the mixed whispering and cold taunting voice. He finally thought he'd found a way out but realised all too soon, that it was a walk in closet. **'Well well looks like we have you cornered Jacky'** The cold emotionless voice drawled on. Jack pushed at the walls, desperately looking for an exit as the voices became louder. **'Nice of your Adria to step aside, we'll destroy your mind, and let you do the rest, you are so weak and pathetic after all I doubt anyone would even-'**

Anger boiled within Jack's blood at his inability to fight back, "Stop this!" He yelled (Interrupting the cold voice) "Who the hell are you anyway?", "Get the hell out of my house!". **'As you wish'** chuckled the voice Jack was shocked at how suddenly and easily the voice just gave up. But he sighed in contentment all the same, as the voices began to fade and his vision returned. He turned to walk out of the cupboard then froze as he saw his red-headed parents wearing their posh matching blue suit,. and staring in plain confusion and bewilderment at their bedraggled son. Jack smiled uncomfortably at them and muttered "Uh... nice to have you back?".

* * *

**At the doctor's office:**

The room was small, the doctor, therapist, whatever he was (Jack didn't know or care) sat at one side of the room, his parents at the other. He-Jack, had been told to sit in the centre of the room (Why did he feel like he was part of some weird experiment?). Jack kept his head bowed to block out the stares he was getting and clutched both sides of the chair trying to calm down some of anxiousness he felt. He'd had to sit there for half an hour, listening to the doctor and his parents talk about him like he wasn't even there.

"Well personally, from his withdrawn body language and the behaviour you've experianced from him, I'd diagnose him with having advanced Schizophrenia" Jacks head jolted up, _'schizophrenia?',_ he thought to himself, _'What's that?'. _"Now schizophrenia", The doctor continued, "Is an imbalance of the brain, where the victim truly believes that what they are seeing, hearing or feeling is real, even though it's all in their mind and doesn't truly exist".

_'Well I guess that would make sense' _Jack carefully thought to himself. "Now I personally think that you 'should' sign this note to have Jack admitted to our mental ward but if you have any quarms against...", "We'll sign it" his parents replied in usion and without hesitation, each took a pen signing on the dotted lines.

Jack quickly glanced up, Admitted, mental ward? He didn't want or need to be admitted! "Wait" he yelled "Don't I get a say in this?". His mother glanced back at him with an almost pitying gaze, but the doctor shook his head, "Jack really does need more help then you can give, it's best if you don't answer, no need for him to get excited". Jack chuckled aloud, excited? He was fucking terrified, how the hell was locking him up with a load of wackos and psychopaths supposed to improve his mental heath?.

His parents finished signing the papers and began to walk out without so much as a backwards glance. As his parents reached the door, the doctor attempted to usher Jack out through a different pair of steel white doors. But Jack dug his heels into the 'perfectly' tiled floor. Causing two burly security guards (he never did quite figure out where they'd appeared from), to each grab one of his arms each, and force him through the doors instead. The reality of where he was going hit him with full force "No!" He shouted, struggling, "Mom! Dad! Come back!" His parents didn't even look up, as they walked through the only exit and left. "Adria! Help me!" Jack began to yell instead "Adri-" The steel doors slammed shut preventing anyone from the outside from hearing any more.

His office quiet once more, the doctor settled himself back down into his chair, and busied himself with sorting out the numerous scattered papers on his desk into piles.

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

Ritsuka189: Thanks for reading, liking and reviewing.

Twistie-Cone: It's too late...I forgot to insure Betsy-the-horse, so when she jumped the fence, I had no insurance to claim, so, heh, (shrugs apologetically).

**As always... please read and review, I'll try an make the next chap more interesting...**

**Sayonara!**


	3. Bad first impressions

****************

Re-

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own Xiaolin Showdown... But it got cancelled because Wuya accidentally got sucked into a vaccum bag and sent to the dump (they're still trying to find her)... Yes, the excuses are in fact just going to get worse and worse, lol.**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

* * *

**Within the main office of the mental institute:**

Jack twitched irritably, the two guards had brought him into the office hours ago, since then, all he'd done was sit and wait. Well, to begin with he'd cried, but after about an hour, he'd given up. The staff had, and still were completely ignoring him, he'd ask questions but get no responce (at one point he'd even attempted to get up and leave, but a male member of staff had just ushered him back towards his white plastic chair, not even bothering to tell Jack why, or how long he had to wait there).

Eventually Jack had just resigned himself to sitting on the uncomfortable stool-like (it had no arms or back) plastic chair, while he watched the staff go back and forth, filling papers and such. The only thing he was thankful for, was at the moment, nothing (as the doctore had labelled) schizophrenic, seemed to be happening, nothing was happening, nothing...

"Jack! How are you?" A slim dark haired lady exclaimed as she bounced joyfully up to him. Jack jolted in suprise (he'd given up on anyone talking to him). "Wha... how do you know my name?", the lady smiled and contiued on in her upbeat voice, "It was on your record, silly, come on lets go and get you sorted". _'Record?' _Jack followed her regardless, she was the nicest person he'd met in a while (besides Adria of course but...).

The dark haired lady, who was apparently named Diana, took him to a small ajoining room from the office. The room contained nothing but 2 wardrobes and... an entire wall of lockers(?). Jack sat down on the chair Diana showed him to (he was beginning to get fed up of sitting down all the time), and stared confusedly at the lockers, while Diana walked out of the only exit and talked to someone outside.

A blonde haired man (in his late twenties, about the same age as Diana) walked back in, Diana nowhere in sight, and smiled at Jack over the dark brown clipboard he was carrying. "How are you today Jack?", "Er...alright I guess" Jack answered, squirming slightly under the man's unblinking gaze. The man nodded and wrote something down on his clipboard. "Ok," Continued the man "Now please stip to your underwear and step to the centre of the room". Jack's eyes widened and shot back at the man, "What?".

The man just rolled his eyes in a, I-really-don't-have-time-for-this, kind of way, "It's for the standards of our hospital's saftey, we have to make sure you aren't carrying anything, that you could harm yourself or others with". Jack still felt uneasy about the whole idea and didn't move from his plastic stool.

"If you refuse, I will have to alert security and have you forceably searched". (Not wanting more people that nessercary to have to see this) Jack wordlessly and slowly got up, moved to the centre of the room and stared at the ground while removing his prized (even though a tad small for him) black coat, along with the rest of his atire, including his socks and boots, until he was just in his boxers.

The doctor slowly circled Jack's body once while scribbling down notes, nodded and handed Jack some thin white clothes. "Put those on" Said the doctor, not bothering to look up from his notes. Jack looked to the clothes and then back at the doctor "But what about my...", "These clothes are standard issue, so we know you belong here, your own possesions will locked away in one of these lockers, until such a time comes as you will recieve them back".

The clothes (consisting of one mid sleeve shirt and one pair of trousers) were uncomfortable and cold, but Jack quickly put them on anyway, feeling the need to show less of himself.

* * *

By the time he'd gotten dressed, Diana had shown back up at the door "Diana, would you help this young boy to his room?". "Right away Dr Saunders" Diana excitedly replied, taking Jacks hand and pulling him out of the room, office and through a labaraynth of corrridors. Everything (within the mental hospital) looked exactly the same, floors tiled, everything white and all the doors exactly the same length appart. Finally they stopped at a door, "This your room" Diana smiled, opening the door and allowing Jack to walk in. Like everywhere else within the mental ward, it was very impersonal, it was about 3 to 4 by 3 to 4 meters long (A small high up barred window facing opposite the door), and contained nothing but a bed and a small bedside cupboard/table.

"I know it's a bit bare, " The lady admitted "But it should suffice... Goodnight Jack". And before Jack could say anything, She quickly turned, left (and from what he could hear...) locked the door behind her.

Jack slowly sat down on his bed, taking it all in and then, once again, began to panic, what would happen to him? How long was he going to be here? Did anyone care he was stuck in here?

Eventually after about half an hour of worrying, he lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over himself. He was still scared and still disbelieving that his parents had actually put him in here, but... (Jack yawned). He was also incredibily tired, he shrugged to himself, _'Tomorrow's another day' _he lazily thought, as he settled himself down on the somewhat comfy sponge matteress.

**'Comfortable there Jack?'** Sneered the voice, sucessfully interupting Jack's attempt at sleep. Jack's eyes snapped open and he glared around the room, searchng for the owner of the cold, mocking voice. **'Well?'**, "I'd be more comfortable in my own bed... you got me locked up in a asylum!". The voice laughed darkly **'I may have baited you, but you're the one that's paying the price!'**. _'Then I'll just ignore it all'_ Jack smirked to himself, closing his eyes and attempting to go to sleep.

**'You ignoring me?, Not a chance!'**, whispering began (there were fewer voices this time, making it easier to understand what they were saying). Even though Jack couldn't latch onto any one voice, he still managed to gain the general gist. Mainly, they muttered about subjects that made him uneasy, such as, no one caring about or going to come for him, that the mental ward wasn't safe and that he'd get attacked if he slept. The voices, and ideas they had, made it a difficult night for him to get to sleep.

* * *

Jack was woken up at 8:00am by Diana, who quickly knocked on the outside of his door, and told him he needed to get up. He groaned and slowly got up from his bed (thanks to ...whatever that cold voice called itself...he'd only had 3 hours of sleep). He wasn't too sure why he had to get up so early in the first place, but maybe if he made a good impression, they'd let him out sooner from the mental hospital.

He pushed at the door _'What the...?'_ the door was still locked how was he meant to... "Jack" Came Diana's voice "Step away from the door and wait". Jack gave the windowless (it had a thin sliding window, but it could only be opened from the outside) door a confused glance and did what she asked. Eventually she opened the door and, (giving him, what now seemed to be her usual smile), led him through a series of corridors and into a very big canteen.

Jack (through his tired, sleep hazed vision) noted that all of the other patients also appeared to be kids, about 13ish and under. They sat at different tables, alone or together, some talking animately with each other, some quietly eating alone and some few others, doing (what Jack saw as) very werid behaviour, such as rocking back and forth, muttering/ yelling incoherently and staring intensly at foreign objects.

With Diana by his side, he got breakfast (A choice between toast or cornflakes) he got some toast and sat down at a table Diana pointed him to. Diana walked off to watch over the other kids/patients, while they also ate their breakfast.

Feeling uncomfortable in such a strange environment, Jack hunched over his plate and quietly munched his toast, eyeing the helpers, guards and other kids within the canteen. "Heh heh... your new aren't you?". Jack looked up from his toast, to see a dark skinned boy, about his age sitting opposite him. Jack gasped in suprise anmd practically inhaled the rest of his toast, causing him to choke slightly (He hadn't realised someone had been sitting opposite him).

The boy laughed slightly, as Jack held his throat and coughed a few times, before glaring at the dark boy. The boy's laughter suddenly subsided and he held out his hand to Jack "Heh, the name's Joe, nice to meet ya". "Yeah...er... I'm Jack" Jack replied as he shook Joe's hand (Slightly confused at the boy's sudden change of mood).

"You been here long?" Joe asked as he ate a spoonful of cornflakes, "No, just moved in yesterday" Jack answered, trying not to notice how Joe accidentally spat out a few cornflakes as he spoke. Joe shook his head apolegetically "Aw! The first day's the worst, you have to make a good impression if you wanna get out early and..." Jack yawned loudly, Joe's eyes widened, "You did get enough sleep didn't you?". "Not as much as I'd hoped for" Jack replied, still yawning.

"Geez Jack, you can't make a good impression if you're that tired, you ought to catch some shut eye for a bit, you know, a little power nap or something?". Jack gave Joe a slightly worried look, Joe just simply laughed "Don't worry, I'll wake you up before anyone even notices, go ahead!".

"Thanks" Jack gratefully replied, glad to have a made a friend, in this otherwise eerily werid place. "No prob Jack.." Were the last words Jack heard as he settled his head down on the table and fell into a well needed sleep.

Diana tsked as she watched Jack from the other side of the canteen. She had seen (and by the rules of her job description), had to note down any strange behaviour he exihibited. And the behaviour she had just had to note down, Jack animately talking to someone or something across the table from him, shaking an imaginary hand and then falling asleep at the table definatly counted as strange. Meaning that he (Jack) and the doctors were going to have a lot to talk about.

Jack snored soundly, his head facing down against the white plate his toast had been in. Blissfully unaware of the fact that he had definatly 'not' made the right impression, and so, was likely to be staying a little longer than the doctors had originally planned.

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

Ritsuka189: Thanks for reading and reviewing, yes... I know, it is crap when good voices go bad (...bad pun). Hopefully this chapter didn't make you cry, cuz I get real uncomfortable when people do that, lol.

Twistie-Cone: I asked Jack about it when you said 'you wanted to give Jack a hug and a big slice of cake', he said he was okay about the hug but he wasn't hungry. So just to make you feel better... I'll be happy to eat the cake... Please? It'll help me type faster! Lol.

**As always... Please read and review, soz for not updating sooner but it's been a bit hectic as of late, hopefully I'll have the next chapter out within 2 to 3 days...**

**Sayonara!**


	4. Diagnosed, educated, medicated

****************

Re-

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own Xiaolin Showdown... But it got shut down, when Jack accidentally flew (with his helipack on) into one of the cameras, and the whole set went up in smoke (tell me the truth, was that excuse better or worse than the last chapter's, lol).**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

* * *

**Still within the mental ward's cafeteria:**

"Hey Jack?... Jack?", Diana whispered softy, breaking through Jack's quickly forgotten dreams. Jack blinked and slowly lifted his head from the white toast plate, shaking his head as he did so, to get rid of the toast crumbs that had stuck to his face. "Huh?" He glanced up at her before quickly scanning the, now empty cafeteria in shock "Wh...where is everyone?". Diana smiled softly, "They left a while ago, seeing how tired you were, and it is your first day. I decided to leave you here, until it was time for your individual appointment with the ward's therapist".

She bent down towards Jack and placed her left hand on his left shoulder, pushing slightly (and prompting him to get up, out of his seat). "Therapist...?" Jack asked, as he got up stiffly (still a bit tired) from the long cafeteria bench. "Uh huh" Replied Diana, leading him away from the table, "Everyone has an interview with him when their first admitted...".

"Wait!" Jack said suddenly, stopping and turning back slightly, to face the table, "What happened to Joe?". "Joe?", Diana questioned, turning to face Jack (she stared confusedly into his oddly coloured eyes). "Who is Joe?". Now it was Jack's turn to look confused, before answering, "Joe... dark skinned boy, dreadlocks nearly down to his shoulders, he-he was sitting opposite me during breakfast, you were watching us talking at one point!". Diana sighed slightly (worried what Jack's reaction would be), "I watched, but I only saw you... No one else was there...".

"What- but someone was there... Joe! You musn't of noticed or...". "Jack...", Diana interrupted "I watched you the entire time... you spoke and shook hands with someone who wasn't there, before going to sleep. And I wasn't the only helper who saw you do that... there was no one there!". Jack felt sick, "...But..." he began, (unsure of what to say), Diana carefully wrapped her arm around his shoulder and led him outof the cafeteria, before he could further dwell on what had happened.

* * *

After sending him into an empty bathroom, to change into a cleaned version of what he was already wearing, (She'd told him he had 3 minutes alone then she was coming in to get him). He was led to a (first and only of it's kind within the ward) dark wooden door, which Diana knocked at before ushering Jack in and telling him she'd collect him later.

As she slowly walked off, Jack stepped timidly into the oddly lit room, noticing the immense personalisation of the room, which hadn't seemed to exist anywhere else within the ward, (At the far side of the room, a cupboard of books, comfortable looking chairs a glossy wooden desk and various pictures covering all four walls and...).

"Are you going to come in?" A slightly agitated voice came from near the desk. Jack quickly stepped in, closing the door behind him and moved towards the slightly balding man, who was sitting in a red armchair, closest to the desk.

The speticled man who looked to be within his mid forties, (Dr Rief the small metal sign on his desk said). Glanced up at the uncomfortable boy, before sighing and muttering, "Just choose a seat and sit down lad...". Jack paused, looking at the many different chairs (bean bags, plastic stools, arm chairs), before choosing a leather recliner and sitting on the edge of it, (mainly because it was the chair closest to the exit).

Dr Rief eyed Jack slightly before looking at the papers he was holding, and speaking to Jack, "Now, from what I've been told you have schizophrenia, I assume you understand what that means...". The doctor glanced back up to see Jack nodding, and continued "Because of this, you have been placed in our care, where we will atempt to help you get over this problem. While at the same time, giving you education and socialisation, within a safe environment. From what Diana told me earlier, she'd left you asleep in the cafeteria because..."

(Chattering, in Jack's head, it was like someone had just turned on, and turned up a sound track of people, all talking within a crowded area). Jack shook his head slightly, and tried to focus on what the man was saying, (it was difficult, because the voices were louder than Dr Reif's voice, meaning that it was near impossible to hear what Dr Reif was saying).

* * *

After about 5 to 10 minutes of trying and failing to understand what the doctor was saying, Jack gave up. (He didn't want the doctor to know what was happening, he didn't want Dr Reif to have a reason to keep him in, longer than nessecary). Jack got into the habit of watching, and attempting to read Dr Reif's lips, simply nodding where it seemed appropriate, and appathetically shrugging or giving one word answers when asked a question, (if the doctor paused and looked questioningly at him, Jack would take it as a question, answering with words which could be taken either way such as 'dunno' or 'maybe' e.t.c).

* * *

As the therapist appointment came to a close, (Dr Reif stood up, prompting Jack to stand up too), the voices seemed to fade as fast as they had began. _'Brilliant timing!"_ Jack thought sarcastically, listening carefully to what was left of the therapist's talk. "...now because of this I have decided to give Diana these..." The doctor showed Jack a small blue bottle of pills. "...Starting from tomorrow, she will give you two a day... one at breakfast and one after your midday meal...".

The doctor walked toward the door and Jack followed asking, "But...what do they do... the pills". Dr Reif turned his head to smile slightly at Jack "They'll make the hallucinations go away, meaning that you will be treated quicker, and so be able to leave this ward sooner". Jack didn't think he could argue with that logic, he nodded and smiled back somewhat, before walking through the open door, Dr Reif closed it behind Jack (Leaving Jack alone, within the hallway). Jack stepped forward from the door, attempting to find Diana, and almost walking into someone else (dressed in blue), who was briskly walking past. "Oh... Sorry!" Jack called out, turning back to look at the... no one! As he glanced around, he realised the long hallway was completely deserted, the person had just vanished, but how could that...

"Jack!" Diana yelled excitedly to him as she turned the corridor's corner, and into his view. "You got out early! Come on! The last education period of the day is just starting". She led him down the same corridor she'd just come from, and into a classroom. The room was white with tables pulled together in 4 groups, (one group of tables in each corner of the room).

The class had already began, a female teacher glanced up and beamed, pulling him from the doorway to the front of the class to introduce him, "Class, we have a new pupil, his name is...". The teacher paused and glanced expectantly at him. Jack gulped slightly (introductions had never gone well in his old school) "Jack Spicer" He answered nervously, looking around at the other kids... few bothered to even look up, mainly they seemed too pre-occupided with themselves or what they were doing (which seemed to mainly be drawing). Jack sighed gratefully, _'At least 'some' things are much easier, at a mental ward'_ he thought to himself.

He was shown to one of the tables, given some paper and told to use the felts tips (a type of colouring pen thats near impossible to hurt yourself with), in the centre of the table, to draw whatever he wanted, apparently the last period was used as a winding down session. Jack grabbed a few random pens, and set to work, drawing a simple looking robot made up of cubes. The female teacher glanced over his shoulder "Oh that's wonderful Jack!" She exclaimed, before continuing on, to look at the other's pictures. Jack smiled to himself (he was rarely given compliments), _'... Now all I need is a black...'_.

Jack looked through the table's bowl of felt tips... no black... he noticed the light haired kid next to him was holding a black, and staring blankly ahead. Jack shrugged to himself _'Beggers can't be choosers'._ "Hey..." Jack began "Could I borrow that... the black pen?". The light haired kid showed no sign or hearing him, and continued to stare ahead. "I'll give it right back if, you just... can you hear me?", -no answer- Jack glanced back around the table, no else seemed to have a black. Once again he shrugged to himself, before attempting to carefully prize the black pen from the rigid boy's hand. "Got it!" Jack said out loud to himself, smirking at the pen he'd just 'borrowed', and was now holding with his pale hand.

"AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!". Jack jumped slightly, spinning to face the screaming light haired kid next to him. Eager to shut the kid up. Jack attempted to push the pen back into the boy's (still clutched) fist, for some reason, the boy began to scream even louder, blindly grabbing and pulling at Jack's red hair, (Causing Jack to yell out slightly in pain, while also attempting to shove the light haired boy away from him).

* * *

Things seemed to speed up after that, the teacher, and several helpers (including Diana), shot forward and spent 5 to 10 mintues attempting to prize the light haired boy's hand open, so they could free Jack and his hair from the light haired boy's tight grasp. The light haired boy seemed to immediately calm down after that, and the teacher let Jack out of the class early. He spent a silent dinner in the cafeteria, Diana sat across from him (probably making sure he didn't cause any more trouble), while she spoke animately with a fellow helper. After dinner Diana walked him to his room, said goodnight and locked him in.

Jack had then quickly gotten into bed, and forced himself to sleep, before the voices had a chance to start up and prevent him, a second time, from getting sleep, (he definetly didn't want tomorrow to be a repeat of today).

* * *

At 8:00am, Jack was again woken up by Diana, who took him to the cafeteria, he got some toast. And Diana left him to find his own table, saying she was going off to check on other kids, (Jack couldn't shake the feeling that she was just walking away, so that she could see how he acted when he was alone).

Jack was determined to not let her see him acting odd, in anyway, this time. He clutched his toast plate, scanning the room for somewhere to sit, He finally chose an empty table and sat down, (He figured it would work out better for him, if he didn't have to interact with other kids). "Hey Jack! How're ya doin?". Jack looked up to see Joe (the guy who apparently didn't exist), walk over and take the seat opposite him. Jack knew his actions were probably being watched, so he looked away from Joe, attempting to focus on something else. "Hey now don't be like that!" Joe continued "I tired, but you wouldn't wake up, it's not my fault Diana had to wake you up instead, now look, what I wanted to tell you is important, cuz...".

Jack angrily, but descretely lent towards Joe (pretending to stare at the table, so as not to arouse any of the helper(s) suspision). "Go away!" Jack whispered to Joe "You'll just cause me more trouble, and I know you're not real so just...".

"Jack!", Diana's sing song voice came from behind him, Jack turned from his leaning-across-the-table position, to look up at her. She passed him a white pill and glass of water. Smiling uncomfortably, (as if worrying whether he would willing take it) she said, "That's your medication for this morning, just take it as you would a normal pill".

Jack looked skeptically at the little white pill he held, turning it over in his hand while Diana watched him. Joe glanced worriedly over at Jack "Look Jack you do not want to do that, the pills are..." . Jack glanced back at Joe as he spoke. _'As long as it gets rid of these trouble causing hallucinations...',_ Jack thought to himself, before downing the pill and watching Diana (who looked slightly relieved that he'd willingly taken it), carry his ,(now empty) glass away, and walk off again, to watch over the other kids.

_'After all'_ Jack thought to himself, his eyes resting on an empty wall near his table, _'What kinda difference can one little pill make...?'_.

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

Randomnessgirl1: Good luck killing off that voice...heh (There's so many...), thanks for reviewing, and Jack says thanks for the hug.

Skellington girl: Thanks for reviewing, Your wish is granted, 'I wrote more of this!' lol.

Twistie-Cone: Thanks for the cake, lol... In responce to your 'I keep checking for a new chapter' comment, (Eye twitches slightly) ...Glad to know theres no pressure then! Lol! Thanks for reviewing, Jack appreciated your hug!

**As always... Please read and review, as a side note/question (just vaguely wondering if anyone knows this answer, if there is an anwer) How does someone who can't speak use the shen gong wu? (Am open to suggestions, lol).**

**Sayonara!**


	5. Drugged

__

__

****************

Re-

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own Xiaolin Showdown... But all the main characters went off on a holiday cruise and got sucked into the bermuda triangle, (these excuses are getting almost as rubbish as Kakashi sensei's (Naruto) lol...).**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

* * *

"Jack!", Diana's sing song voice came from behind him, Jack turned from his leaning-across-the-table position, to look up at her. She passed him a white pill and glass of water. Smiling uncomfortably, (as if worrying whether he would willing take it) she said, "That's your medication for this morning, just take it as you would a normal pill".

Jack looked skeptically at the little white pill he held, turning it over in his hand while Diana watched him. Joe glanced worriedly over at Jack "Look Jack you do not want to do that, the pills are..." . Jack glanced back at Joe as he spoke. _'As long as it gets rid of these trouble causing hallucinations...',_ Jack thought to himself, before downing the pill and watching Diana (who looked slightly relieved that he'd willingly taken it), carry his ,(now empty) glass away, and walk off again, to watch over the other kids.

_'After all'_ Jack thought to himself, his eyes resting on an empty wall near his table, _'What kinda difference can one little pill make...?'_.

* * *

Jack continued to watch the wall, seeing the many other kids (patients) who walked past it. Some silent, some talking, some acting slightly strange, other who were being followed closly by helpers... they all seemed so happy, they looked so happy. "It's perfect..." Jack whispered to himself. A hand lightly gripped his upper arm. "Jack... It's time to go...", an angelic voice murmered into his ear. Jack turned his head to see the speaker, it was Diana... how beautiful she looked.

Jack attempted to stand but failed miserably, his legs only managing a slight shuffle, and his arms flailing about uselessly, he glanced down at his body bemusedly, wondering why he wasn't moving. Diana sighed slightly, before putting her arms underneath Jack's arm pits and heaving him up to his feet. As he was brought up to his feet, his head slowly raised as well, he saw Joe still sitting at the table, staring dissapointedly at him and shaking his head. Jack stared back at Joe, slightly puzzled at why Joe wasn't happy, everyone was happy, why wasn't Joe happy?

_

* * *

_

Diana brought Jack into the classroom and sat him down at an empty table (he was the only kid in the classroom, there were 10 minutes before class began). Jack sat hunched over in his seat, still staring at his feet, occassionaly smiling slightly and mouthing words. Diana watched him, with some slight satisfaction, she was glad he wasn't moving around so much, that meant she wouldn't have to keep such a close eye on him.

Diana glanced up at the clock, she shrugged to her self, the class would start in 10 minutes, and she had a certain male doctor friend she was going to meet with for lunch. Besides, she glanced back at Jack who was still obsessed with his feet, it wasn't like Jack would be moving anywhere for next few hours. She muttered a goodbye to Jack, and left for the cafeteria.

* * *

**Still in the classroom, a few minutes later:**

"Oh!" Exclaimed the teacher, as she walked in, and saw a very dim looking Jack sitting at a lone desk. "You're here early aren't you?". Jack looked up and watched her with glazed over eyes. The teacher shuffled uncomfortably, under the child's unmoving gaze. She turned suddenly, hearing several young, nearing voices, and sighed in relief (That weird Jack kid was making her feel really uncomfortable), as she saw the rest of the kids begin to walk into the class. She busied herself with the other kids (Getting them to their seats and such).

Jack's eyes stayed, rooted to the same position, not bothering to follow the teacher, as she walked around, overseeing the kids as they worked on English and Maths problems. His vision seemed to slowly blur in and out of focus, as he wordlessly watched a wooden table infront of a white wall. The words spoken by the teacher and kids, nothing but a meaningless mumble.

* * *

**Later...:**

"muplch dguktf... Jclumphm?" Jack glazed up groggily, from the wooden table, to the speaker. "Jagukymm... Jaqukymm?" Jack looked, in calm confusion, towards the adult sized blur, which bent over him. "...Jgykf... Jafgkym... Jaceee... Jack... Jack? Jack!" The adult sized blur shook him slightly, causing his vision to dance in and out of focus, before finally focusing and allowing him to see his slightly annoyed looking teacher, standing infront of him.

"S-sorry" mumbled Jack (figuring the teacher was unhappy that he wasn't doing his work) "What did you want me to do?". The teacher blinked slightly "...Jack...you haven't done anything... at all, you haven't even picked up a pen sin-". "What time is it?" Jack interrupted, eying her confusedly. "It's 6:30, you've ignored or just not taken part in any of today's lessons, you've missed lunch... and where is your-".

"Jack!" Jack jumped as he felt someone grab his shoulder. He spun around and sighed as he realised it was just Diana. "I am sooo sorry!" Diana said to the teacher as she led Jack out of the classroom "I just got really caught up in... anyways thanks for looking after him, bye!". The teacher went to say something to Diana but left it, not wanting have to chase after her.

* * *

**Within the mental ward's lenghty corridors:**

Diana slowed down to walk at Jack's side, "So, how did your lessons go?" She asked. "Er... alright I guess..." Jack replied as he followed the seemingly endless corridors, aiming for the cafeteria, "I'm not so sure that pill helped much though, I can't really remember much of what happened today...". Diana nodded knowingly "It's just your body getting used to the pills, it happens to everyone... right turn here Jack". "...I need the bathroom" Jack replied, still not used to the fact that he had to tell someone where he was going, all the time. "Oh..." was all Diana had to say...

* * *

**In the empty bathroom:**

Jack walked in, "Five minutes" Diana called as the bathroom door closed behind him. Jack glared back at the door slightly, he'd only been admitted two days ago, and he was already getting tired of the fact that everything he did or wanted to do, was controlled (he also figured the after affects of the pill were making him a little bit touchy). He walked over to the urinals, "Hey Jack! The drug's finally worn off huh?" Jack turned to see Joe walking towards him. "Yeah..." Jack muttered, trying to ignore the 'imaginary' boy, he turned from the urinal and walked into a toilet cubicle instead, closing the door behind him.

Joe lent against the wall the toilet cubicles were connected to, "What did they give to you anyways?". "Dunno..." Jack's voice answered from the cubicle "...never got to read the label... I know you aren't real Joe!". "Yeah..." Joe idly flicked one of his dreadlocks and laughed slightly, "You said that this morning". "So..." Jack's voice answered irritably. Joe turned to face the cubicle Jack was in "...So what?". "So why don't you just leave then, all these hallucinations- it's not making my life any easier...".

A sound of the toilet flushing was heard, Jack stepped out of the cubicle and went over to the sink. "That's what am trying to do, make your life easier!", Jack looked skeptically at Joe's reflection in the mirror as he washed his hands. Joe continued, "Look, you saw those kids who just sit there and talk to themselves, thats what those pills do, they mess you up! Don't you see? Those pills aren't the type that help you get better, those are drowsyness pills, theiy're just putting you to sleep so you don't cause any trouble".

"But I haven't caused any trouble! Why would they do that?" Jack asked, glancing from Joe's reflection in the mirror, to the tap as he turned it off. "Cause your written down as having advanced schizophrenia, they don't want to have to bother watching out and waiting for you to have a full on episode. Their not stopping your problem, their just preventing it from putting a cloud on their day!".

Jack remained quiet, as he watched the cleansing water drip off his pale hands, what Joe said did kind of make sense- "Jack, five minutes are up, I'm coming in!", Diana opened the door and smiled as she saw Jack looking back at her, "Come on Jack, the cafeteria won't stay open forever!", She turned to leave, Jack looked back to scan the bathroom, nothing, Joe had dissapeared...

* * *

**In the cafeteria again:**

(Joe sat opposite Jack at the cafeteria, but didn't talk, he didn't want Jack to have to answer back and look like he was talking to himself...again).

Jack sighed contentedly after a nice meal of battered fish and potatoes. His contentness was however, short lived, as Diana soon turned up to place a glass of water, and another one of those oval shaped white pills, on the table infront of him. Diana sat next to Jack, so she could make sure he took it. Jack glared at the table, great, there went his idea of trying to just hide the pill... there again...

Jack picked up the pill with his right hand, put the said hand to his open mouth then grabbed the water and swallowed some. Diana beamed "Good now lets... Jack, take the pill...". "What?" answered Jack throwing her an exaggerated look of confusion, "I just took it!". "No you didn't!" she answered, "It's there in your hand!". Jack wordlessly showed her his open left hand. "No... your other hand..." Diana replied smartly, grabbing hold of Jack's right wrist before he chance to hide the pill. (Joe quietly watched the scence unfold, being unable to do anything helpful).

Jack hesitated, then slowly opened his right hand, to show the un-swallowed white pill. Diana took the pill from his pale hand "Why won't you take it?". "It doesn't make me better it makes me worse and...". "Jack, I told you before, your body just needs time to ajust, then you'll stop hallucinating and be able to go home... now take your pill!". Jack didn't believe her and he hated the way she always gave that eerie smile, no matter how serious the situation. "Look I don't want to have to force you, but if it comes to that..." She held the pill up in front of his face, Jack glared and turned his head away from her.

"You bring this on yourself" Diana whispered annoyedly, she gestured to two other helpers who walked over, carefully pulled Jack up from his seat, (Jack glanced at Joe, who gave Jack a sad smile but remained in his seat at the caferteria table) and led him outside the cafeteria, Diana following behind (they couldn't forcably give him the pill in the cafeteria, it would cause a dominoes riot effect on the other patients).

* * *

**An empty patient's room:**

Jack was sat down on the bed, the other helpers standing either side of him. Diana stood infront of him and again brought the pill close to his face. Jack went to shove the pill out of her hand and onto the floor, but the two helpers immediatly grabbed his upper arms, preventing him from moving (their grip was like concrete). Despite himself, Jack still glared defiantly up at her, "I'm not taking it alright?" he yelled, "... I'm not fuckin-" SLAP!

Jack's head flew sideways, he sat there in shock, before glancing up at the two other helpers, a disbelieving, you-saw-that,-right? Look on his face. The two helpers didn't even glance his way. "Quite bad language for a child... will you take your pill now?". Jack looked back at Diana, the horrendous smile still plastered on her face. He slowly shook his head, (still disbelieving the lady he'd trusted had just done that), "no.." he whispered. "What was that?" Diana mocked. Jack stared directly into her eyes, attempting to hide his fear as best as possible, "I said n-".

Diana punched him in the stomach (his arms were being held so he couldn't protect himself). Jack let out a pained gasp, Diana took that moment to lunge forward and shove the pill into his mouth. Jack immediatly attempted to spit it back out, but the 'helper' on his right hand side clamped her hand over Jack's mouth, preventing him from doing so. The helpers then pushed him into the bed, and held his frantically struggling form still.

Diana appeared, in his line of vision, looming over him with a glass of water. She pushed the glass under the hand around his mouth and poured. Eventually, she pulled the now empty glass away, the hand sliding back into place, around his mouth (preventing from spitting the pill, or water out). The 'helper' on his left hand side, grabbed his chin and tilted his head back. He stared, terrified, up at Diana, trying his hardest not to-'gulp'!

The two 'so-called' helpers lifted him back up to a sitting positon, before letting go of him and leaving the room. Jack let a few tears of frustration slide down his face, as he felt himself lose control of his own body again. Dina sat down on the bed next to him "Now... she said kindly, pulling his limp form towards her as she hugged him and stroked his spiky red hair "What's this about... getting all upset like that?". Jack blinked and pondered the question, but didn't know the answer... why would he feel so miserable, when everything was so beautiful, so perfect. His gaze slowly went in and out of focus, as he looked up at the lovely dark hair that partically covered her still smilling face, his eyes fully dialated, and he saw no more.

* * *

**10 days later:**

Jack was sitting at the cafeteria table, his body imobile and his mouth slightly hanging open. A little plastic spoon pushed some tasteless, mushed up food into his mouth. He robotically chewed and swallowed the food, before letting his mouth hang open again. After a few more minutes, Diana put the spoon down, "Well done!" She childed him. "You ate it all, how clever you are... Now I'll go get your meds".

His eyes painstakingly followed her, he hated her... he'd gained the ability to think straight a few days ago, but on the outside he was still a vegetable. It took a ridiculous amount of energy, just to follow her with his eyes (the rest of his body seemed to only sub-conciously move of it's own accord, he was still seeing and hearing things, that weren't there he just couldn't outwardly react to them anymore).

Why didn't anyone notice that he was stuck like this, he didn't know how long he'd been stuck in vegetable state like this for but-. "Jack!", Diana called out to him, in her sing-song, voice "Time to take your meds", she stepped over to him, pushed the pill into his mouth and poured the water in after it. Jack involutarily swallowed, Diana smiled and walked away, he let his gaze drop, not having the stamina or want to watch her any longer.

It was past frustrating, if he could only just... his hand twitched, he looked excitedly over to the said hand, and attempted to move it again, his right leg kicked out... that was odd, why would-. His entire body convulsed and his shoulders began to shake uncontrolably, his right leg contiuasly kicked out, while his left stayed motionless, his arms flapped about haphazardly, and his whole torso swung from side to side. Still unable to move at all, his head was free to limply follow his body's uncontrollable movements.

The movements became more and more servere until he threw himself out of his chair. The side of his face collided painfully with the white tiled floor and he continued to convulse on the floor, his vision flying from side to side, as a result of not being able to control his (now also) covulsing neck and head. "Oh my god! Oh my god!" Jack heard someone shout in a panicked voice. Several helpers and nurses ran over, they began to either start moving things out of the way, or attempted to hold him down (one pushed his head forward, to try and prevent him from swallowing his tongue). "Doctor" He heard someone say (they were talking over a mobile but he couldn't see that) "You'd better come down here immediately, one of the kids is having a seziure!".

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

Randomnessgirl1: Jack was glad for the hug, but annoyed that he didn't get his ice cream cone... (Timelessdemon sheepishly shrugs), I was hungry!

Ritsuka189: Glad to know the 2 chapters made your day/night (lol). And yes... I know from experiance, that people will notice (and probably also back/stay away from you), if you talk out loud to yourself... Heh, thanks for reading and reviewing, lol.

**As always... Please read and review...**

**Sayonara!**


	6. Quest for home

**Re-**

**Aclaimer: Yes I own Xiaolin Showdown... I also own all of Cartoonnetwork and Boomerang and... (Sees a group of lawyers cracking their knuckles and smirking. Timelessdemon does a Jack-like scream and runs, the lawyers in close pursuite). Please don't hurt or sue me... am brittle!**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**(Soz about not updating sooner, bin having trouble concentrating on stuff (...heh) ...anyways, on with the chapter!)**

* * *

**10 days later:**

Jack was sitting at the cafeteria table, his body imobile and his mouth slightly hanging open. A little plastic spoon pushed some tasteless, mushed up food into his mouth. He robotically chewed and swallowed the food, before letting his mouth hang open again. After a few more minutes, Diana put the spoon down, "Well done!" She childed him. "You ate it all, how clever you are... Now I'll go get your meds".

His eyes painstakingly followed her, he hated her... he'd gained the ability to think straight a few days ago, but on the outside he was still a vegetable. It took a ridiculous amount of energy, just to follow her with his eyes (the rest of his body seemed to only sub-conciously move of it's own accord, he was still seeing and hearing things, that weren't there he just couldn't outwardly react to them anymore).

Why didn't anyone notice that he was stuck like this, he didn't know how long he'd been stuck in vegetable state like this for but-. "Jack!", Diana called out to him, in her sing-song, voice "Time to take your meds", she stepped over to him, pushed the pill into his mouth and poured the water in after it. Jack involutarily swallowed, Diana smiled and walked away, he let his gaze drop, not having the stamina or want to watch her any longer.

It was past frustrating, if he could only just... his hand twitched, he looked excitedly over to the said hand, and attempted to move it again, his right leg kicked out... that was odd, why would-. His entire body convulsed and his shoulders began to shake uncontrolably, his right leg contiuasly kicked out, while his left stayed motionless, his arms flapped about haphazardly, and his whole torso swung from side to side. Still unable to move at all, his head was free to limply follow his body's uncontrollable movements.

The movements became more and more servere until he threw himself out of his chair. The side of his face collided painfully with the white tiled floor and he continued to convulse on the floor, his vision flying from side to side, as a result of not being able to control his (now also) covulsing neck and head. "Oh my god! Oh my god!" Jack heard someone shout in a panicked voice. Several helpers and nurses ran over, they began to either start moving things out of the way, or attempted to hold him down (one pushed his head forward, to try and prevent him from swallowing his tongue). "Doctor" He heard someone say (they were talking over a mobile but he couldn't see that) "You'd better come down here immediately, one of the kids is having a seziure!".

* * *

**10 minutes later (still in the cafeteria):**

10 minutes later, a doctor and several asistants wheeling in a gernsey came in to the cafeteria. Jack was still on the floor convulsing, nurses and helpers holding down his limbs to prevent him from hurting himself. Jack's head was still being thrown from side to side, as several of the doctor's assistants bent down and carefully lifted him on to the gernsey (a fold up bed with wheels). From his jumpy vision, he could only, basically figure out what was going on, as the asistants strapped him to the gernsey, to prevent him from moving so much.

It was amazing that after only 10 minutes of convulsing, he felt so tired, yet his limbs and body refused to stop moving, his head felt almost like it had the pins and needles sensation that people only tended to get when they've sat or leaned on a limb for too long. Despite his tiredness, he still felt incredibly scared, he didn't know what a seziure was, why his body was frantically and uncontrolably moving like it was, and also, most importantly, how long he would be stuck like that for (was it permanent?).

A pair of hand brought and fixed a plastic mask over his face, before attempting to hold his head still. Sleeping gas seepd in, through the mask, silencing his tiredness and worries as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

* * *

**In the hospital part of the ward:**

Black, everything was black, yet he felt so calm... he heard murmurs of voices and listened, the voices slowly becoming more and more clear. "My god... You knew those weren't the right drugs!", "...What makes you say that?". "He had to have his stomach pumped, and what they found inside him, definetly weren't the pills he was meant to be taking!".

"Yeah... I dunno I just thought it'd shut him up for a bit if I..", out of habit, Jack blinked confusedly (letting in almost blinding rays of light), sahking his he and shoulders unconfortably, as he wondered, _'shut who up?'_.

"Oh god Diana, you are so in for it... people get fired or even busted for this kinda thing", "Then they won't find out-". Continuing to listen, Jack fully opened his eyes, noticing Joe. Who was causally sitting on a red cushioned chair near his bed, earnestly watching the two ladies through the window of the glass/plastic door, (which Jack couldn't see from his position) talk.

Overjoyed with the realisation that he could freely move again, Jack opened his mouth to say something to Joe. Without even looking up, Joe put his finger to his own lips, Jack wordlessly nodded and continued to listen to the conversation.

"No shit they won't find out, you know the rules, parents get called in if their kids end up in the intensive care hospital area, you've seen his parents they're loaded, they'd well sue you, or worse". Jack smiled inwardly at this thought, his parents would see how badly he was being treated and-. "Well it's not gonna happen is it?", "...Huh?".

Diana laughed slightly and continued (Jack could almost feel the smirk in her words)- "That blonde doctor, who's looking after Jack... he's my boyfriend, a few words to him and legally, Jack won't even have stepped foot inside the hospital ward", Jack's eyes bugged out in disbelief, looking up at Joe as the coversation between Diana and the other supposed 'helper' continued.

"Wow... your lucky" Joe's eyes narrowed and glared as the other woman began to speak again, "I remember when that other thing happened with Joe, I-". Joe twitched angrily, leaning over the arm of the chair to view them more closely, his hands balling into fists. Diana was next to speak. "...Joe?...", "Yeah, you remember..." replied the other helper "that black kid who-".

Jack leaned forward so he could hear the converstaion better and began to cough and splutter uncontrollably, immdeiatly silencing the conversation. "I better go, see to Jack", Diana's voice said to the unknown helper.

Two pair of footsteps were heard, one going away, one coming closer. Jack looked up from his coughing fit, to see Diana open the glass/plastic door and step into the room (Joe had vanished from his seat in the armchair and was no longer in the room). She smiled softly as she walked over to Jack, and sat on the side of his bed, wordlessly holding Jack's convulsing form (to prevent from angering any of the wounds he'd gained when his body had managed to uncontrollably hit objects, during his seizure), until he finished his coughing fit.

"You worried me you did" She said, pushing Jack back onto his bed and pulling the covers back up over his body. "Overdosing on all the those pills and then hurling yourself down a flight of stairs, you're lucky I like you so much...". Jack shot her a confused and worried look as she continued, gently smoothing his firery red hair as she did so. "Otherwise, I would have had to have this whole event documented, then your parents would have had to come, and find what a danger you really are to yourself...not to mention what the doctors would have said...".

"You-" He interrupted weakly, (not being able to speak for 10 days or so had slightly impaired his ability to talk). "You did this... You forced me, to take those pills... a nurse said I was having a seziure...and-". "Really Jack, if your going to straight out lie, infront of someone who saw the whole thing, then I really don't...". "You caused the whole thing" Jack interrupted "I wouldn't take those pills, so you slapped, then punched me in the stomach and... and...". "Jack... We 'were' going stop your medication. But, if you truly believe, that what your telling me is the truth, I 'will' have to ask the doctor to up and give you another dosage, and the next one will be even stronger... you are just making it all up aren't you?".

Jack looked away from her, but what he was saying was the truth... wasn't it?... Either way... he didn't want another dosage...

"Well...?" Diana said, closely watching his quiet body twitch, at the sound of her voice. "Which one will it be?". "I-I'm making it up... I know your story is the real one..." Jack quietly replied, his gaze staying fixed on his white bed cover (Unwilling to make eye contact with her). "I'm glad to hear that", murmured Diana, as she got up from her sitting position, next to Jack, and began to tuck the covers in underneath his body (It should have felt comforting/motherly, yet, to Jack, it felt more like she was attempting to tie him down and prevent him from moving off the bed).

"I heard you and that other helper talking before..." Jack said, in an attempt to scare her back in some small way. Diana paused slightly before continuing to tuck the covers in, around him. "And just what did you hear Jacky?" she calmly replied. Jack saw exactly what she was trying to do, (find out how much he'd heard, tell him it was all in his mind, and then get him the dosage that she'd threatened to before, so he couldn't tell anyone else), "Nothing..." He replied, "I just heard you talking was all...".

Diana smiled slightly to herself, the boy was learning fast, "Well everyone talks Jack, just like we are now...". "Uh huh..." Jack muttered, slowly nodding his head as she went to fluff his pillow. She lifted his head up slightly with one hand and shook the pillow with the other. "Besides" She whispered, her smile, for once, turning into a slight frown, as she bent her head down next to his ear.

"I'm a highly trained adult, helper, with years of referrences and experiance... you're just an unreliable 11 year old child, with advanced, delusionary schizophrenia, who sees and hears imaginary things all the time... Just who do you think they'd believe?". Jack remained silent as she finshed fluffing up the pillow, placed his head down on it and pasted the sickening smile back onto her face.

Jack quietly (yet angrily) watched her, as she stood up and looked at him. "Goodnight, my little prince" she smiled, as she gave him a quick kiss on the top of his forehead, and walked out. Jack waited to hear the sound of the door closing shut, before wrenching his arm free from the tight grip of the blankets, and attempting to rub away the feeling of the fake (and almost mocking kiss), that she'd placed on top of his forehead.

* * *

**1 month later:**

Jack sat at one of the many tables within the classroom, carefully holding his paintbrush as he drew the roof of a house (his house), it was the last lesson of the day, so they were painting as a wind down period.

True to her word... Diana hadn't force fed him anymore pills, and he was beginning to get on in leaps and bounds with his school work, (which admittedly wasn't that difficult, considering the work set out was practically primary school work- 7-4=, e.t.c). It was, in a way, almost pateranising, the way that everyone (no matter their age or mental stability) were all given work, a 5 year old could do, no one seemed to complain about it being so easy though, (but then again, what 'sane' kid would?).

He'd tried asking Joe about the helper Diana had been talking to, but Joe had only grown angry in responce, and had refused to speak to Jack for several days afterwards. Jack didn't bother mentioning anything else about the helper after that. Jack still found Diana annoying and uncomfortable to be around, but as long as he was off those pills he didn't care. He knew what had really happened during most of those 10 days (chapter: drugged), he'd quietly believe it, no matter what Diana said about it just being a schizophrenic delusion (He knew for a fact, that he definetely hadn't attempted suicide, it was just being used to explain the types of pills found inside his stomach).

Jack dipped the brush he was painting with, into a small pot of light blue paint, and began to paint a sky for his picture (the picture was of his home with him and his parents standing outside and smiling). He didn't really feel like painting something so fake and cheerful, but Joe had told him that the teacher would look at the paintings, as a sign of how mentally healthy the patients were. Apparently drawing a dark vortex, full of sad and angry faces was the complete opposite of being mentally healthy so... Jack shrugged to himself, as he finished the painting and put the brush back into the pot of water.

Jack smirked to himself as he stared at his completed painting, looking forward to talking to Joe again. He knew Joe wasn't really there... but, it was still way better company than just being alone. Diana kinda scared Jack, and the other kids, who were sane enough to talk back, were, also apparently, sane enough to not want to have anything to do with him. Meaning that besides Joe, there wasn't really anyone who would socialise with him (everyone needs someone to communicate or socialise with...).

The bell for the end of class rang, the kids began to get up and leave for the cafeteria, Jack got up as well to follow them, and stepped outside to see Diana and Joe (standing next to Diana) waiting for him. "Hey there, Jacky!" "Hi Jack" Diana and Joe said in usion, "Hi" Jack replied only to Joe, but still kept his eyes focused on Diana, not wanting her to ask who he was looking at. Jack walked in the direction of the cafeteria Joe by his right side, Diana at his left.

Joe kept his eyes focused on the long corridor ahead as he spoke to Jack "So... did my advise about the paintings hel-" "How was your day Jack?" Diana's overly cheery voice interupted (She couldn't hear or see Joe so...). Jack gave a subtle thumbs up sign to Joe as he answered Diana, "Yeah, it was ok, painted a picture, did maths...". "Oh thats good to know" Diana interrupted again, absent mindedly, as if something was bothering her. Jack gave her a questioning look as they rounded a corner, taking the long route to cafeteria instead of the usual route. Diana slowed down and motioned for Jack to do the same (Joe slowing down as well ).

Diana began to speak, "As I'm sure you're well aware, your parents host a little family reunion around this time every year, they've requested that (within a week) you attend, which, judging by your behaviour during the past month, seems fine to me and the rest of the staff, that have anything to do with your case... However, in three days, I'm also about to have a review of my work here, and it requires my patient (if their in good enough help, which you seem to be), to say what they think of me and my ability to help them with their mental... incapabilities. I'm of course, sure that you'd give me a nice enough review though..."

Her smile twisted into a slight sneer "...Because I'm sure you don't want to miss out on that little reunion... would you Jacky?". Jack stopped walking and stared after her in shock and slight anger, Joe did the same, glaring at her as he spoke "My god, what a bitc-". "Your blackmailing me?" Jack yelled after her (once again interrupting and now, slightly annoying Joe while also), gaining the attention of passers by who stopped and stared.

Diana paused and walked back over to Jack, placing her arm around his shoulder and quickly walking him past the spectators "Jack" she muttered "If you're going to keep having outbursts like this, I can't guarantee that you'll be going to that reunion". Jack held his tongue (bit back angry remarks), and let Diana continue to lead him through the corridors, (Joe still following and glaring at Diana in silence).

"...Now as I said before", she continued, still smiling as always, "In three days, you have to tell my superiors how helpful it is for you to have me around. As long as you tell them that it 'is' helpful to have me around, then you will get to go to that reunion. But if you don't... do we have a deal.

Jack glanced sideways, giving a sad what-else-can-I-do smile to Joe, as he answered, "Yeah Diana... We have a deal...". "Excellent!" Diana replied joyfully, smiling even more brightly and pulling Jack closer towards her as they walked. "...and don't you worry about what to say... I have it already planned out. I'll start teaching it to you in the cafeteria, you'll be fine!"

* * *

**Three days later (at the interview with Diana's superiors):**

"...And you're very happy, having Diana around, you've found that it has helped you to cope easier?" The female of the two superiors asked Jack, who sat on a simple plastic chair, an old wooden table between him and the two, also sitting superiors. "Yes..." Jack replied in an unenthusiastic, and almost sarcastic voice, as he repeated what Diana had taught him. "It's sooo much easier to have her around, I feel 'lucky' to have such a 'caring' helper".

"Very good, very good" the male superior replied, leaning over the table to look closely at Jack, "Now before you go, is there anything else you'd like to mention?". Jack thought about it, then remembered that Diana was also in the room (standing directly behind him) and so, would hear every word he said, "No..." Jack replied quietly, "Not a thing..".

"Ok then" the female said, writting something down in her paper booklet "You'll be given your full review data back at a later date Diana, but from what information we have gotten so far... it seems like it will be good news". "Thank you very much... I'll see you later then I guess" Diana replied, quickly and almost nervously, ushering Jack towards the door, as if she thought he might change his mind and tell them what she was really like, at any second.

Once they were outside (Joe leaning on the wall next to the door waiting for Jack) Diana smiled happily at him, "Well done... see, it does pay to tell the truth, and now you 'can' go to that reunion... don't you feel so great now?". "Yeah", Jack replied, almost jealous of the way, that Joe could roll his eyes and glare directly at Diana, without getting into trouble for it, "...Ecstatic(!)...".

* * *

**Four days later (Jack being driven back home, Diana sitting next to him):**

Jack stared out the window, unable to hold the exitement of going home, even if it was only for a weekend, he didn't care... at least he got to go and stay at home for a few days. Even the fact that Diana insisted on accompanying him all the way to his house, couldn't put a damper on his mood. He tapped his foot enthusiastically to the steady beat of the rock song, eminating from the car radio. He'd asked Joe to come with him, but Joe had replied, that he'd rather stay at the mental ward to keep an eye on things. Jack had answered that he'd 'rather have a bowl of coco-pops', which they'd both laughed at.

The car began to near familar streets and Jack's foot tapping got louder and more enthusiastic. Diana tsked annoyedly and looked over at him, "Would you stop that Jack?". "Heh... sorry" Jack replied timidly (not wanting to cause any problems, when he was 'so' close to home), "I just like this song...". Diana pulled a confused face "What song?". "The song coming from the radio...", Jack trailed off, realising that no-one else was hearing the music.

An uncomfortable silence filled the car, the burly gray haired driver glanced at Jack through his rear-view mirror and replied, "Kid, this car don't have a radio". The uncomfortable silence continued and Jack was glad when they finally arrived and parked next to his home. He frantically opened the car door (before Diana could have a chance to change her mind about letting him stay at home), and ran over to his house door, knocking rapidly on it.

Two red haired, bluey-green eyed adults answered the door- his Mom and Dad!. Without hesistation, he ran forward and put his arms around them both (hugging them tightly). The two parents jumped in suprise, before smiling uncomfortably down at their son (they rarely hugged him and so, vice versa), plus, the fact that he was an addmited mental patient didn't help matters.

Thankfully, for the parents, Diana walked towards and asked to speak to them privately. The parents untangled Jack from them and sent him inside to 'settle back in' while they spoke with Diana. Jack was only too happy to do so, he rushed in and looked around (he hadn't been away for much longer than a month, but even that had seemed too long). He slowly walked through his home, heading towards his bedroom, taking in and adding to re-memory, all of the rooms and decorations, of the house as he did so.

It was perfect... he was home!

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

mrkillington: Thanks for reviewing, lol. Yes... I think Jack's also hoping for a gruesome end for Diana, lol.

Randomnessgirl1: Joe accepts your apology and me and Jack definetly accept the ice cream!... Thankyou! Lol.

Ritsuka189: Cool.. I'll get the rope and we can hang her after we kidnap her lol... though maybe that's a touch too sadistic (shrugs). I'll leave you to punish her, I'll just do the kidnapping, lol. Thanks for the information about the Ayame fanfic, I'll have to try and find that fic at some point, (I didn't realise anyone read my add on questions, so thanks) lol.

**ANOTHER QUESTION!: ...What's a pudding cup...?**

**As always... Please read and review...**

**Sayonara!**


	7. Party?

**Re-**

**Aclaimer: (Timelessdemon stands close to the microphone, lawyers on either side) I'd just like to say that I... don't own anything, everything I said before was a lie and... Oh f**k this! (Grabs the mic) I own everything... this whole world everything... everything you hear me? (Lawyers have to pry the mic away from Timelessdemon and the words drown out) I! Own! Everythin-.**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors.**

**(Soz about not updating sooner, bin having trouble concentrating on stuff (...heh) ...anyways, on with the chapter!)**

* * *

**Four days later (Jack being driven back home, Diana sitting next to him):**

Jack stared out the window, unable to hold the exitement of going home, even if it was only for a weekend, he didn't care... at least he got to go and stay at home for a few days. Even the fact that Diana insisted on accompanying him all the way to his house, couldn't put a damper on his mood. He tapped his foot enthusiastically to the steady beat of the rock song, eminating from the car radio. He'd asked Joe to come with him, but Joe had replied, that he'd rather stay at the mental ward to keep an eye on things. Jack had answered that he'd 'rather have a bowl of coco-pops', which they'd both laughed at.

The car began to near familar streets and Jack's foot tapping got louder and more enthusiastic. Diana tsked annoyedly and looked over at him, "Would you stop that Jack?". "Heh... sorry" Jack replied timidly (not wanting to cause any problems, when he was 'so' close to home), "I just like this song...". Diana pulled a confused face "What song?". "The song coming from the radio...", Jack trailed off, realising that no-one else was hearing the music.

An uncomfortable silence filled the car, the burly gray haired driver glanced at Jack through his rear-view mirror and replied, "Kid, this car don't have a radio". The uncomfortable silence continued and Jack was glad when they finally arrived and parked next to his home. He frantically opened the car door (before Diana could have a chance to change her mind about letting him stay at home), and ran over to his house door, knocking rapidly on it.

Two red haired, bluey-green eyed adults answered the door- his Mom and Dad!. Without hesistation, he ran forward and put his arms around them both (hugging them tightly). The two parents jumped in suprise, before smiling uncomfortably down at their son (they rarely hugged him and so, vice versa), plus, the fact that he was an addmited mental patient didn't help matters.

Thankfully, for the parents, Diana walked towards and asked to speak to them privately. The parents untangled Jack from them and sent him inside to 'settle back in' while they spoke with Diana. Jack was only too happy to do so, he rushed in and looked around (he hadn't been away for much longer than a month, but even that had seemed too long). He slowly walked through his home, heading towards his bedroom, taking in and adding to re-memory, all of the rooms and decorations, of the house as he did so.

It was perfect... he was home!

* * *

As his parents and Diana continued to talk at the door, Jack excitedly ran up stairs on his hands and feet (causing less noise so as not to bring attention to himself). He finally reached the top step, walking past the creamy white coloured walls and doors, he finally reached his own (creamy white) door. His right hand grabbed the handle and tentively opened the door, it swung open and he was left to look in wonder at the brillant white walls of his room, toys, bed covers and different machine pieces, all thrown haphazardly over the blue carpet... just like he'd left it.

He walked slowly into the room, just taking everything in- 'tap!'. He stopped as he felt something under his foot, he bent down to pick it up. A black controller shaped in a half moon shape, it had a wire coming out of it, Jack's eyes followed the wire, smiling as his eyes finally landed on his treasured sega megadrive console. _'Heh,'_ he thought to himself, smirking as he switched on the tv and console, _'Guess a few minutes couldn't hurt...'_.

* * *

**3 and 1/2 hours later...:**

"Come on Sonic!" Jack yelled, frantically pressing the jump and directional buttons as he watched Sonic jump up the steps of the Labarynth zone, the water rose rapidly underneath him. After jumping several more steps, Sonic was on safe ground again (Jack breathing a short sigh of relief), He travelled quickly, grabbing more rings and dodging odd drill faced creatures. The end was there, at the right hand side of the screen a odd tv-like panel with a picture of Dr Robotnik on it stood. Jack's eyes locked on to the panel as he pressed the right direction button, making Sonic speed towards it. "Yahoo! Almost there! Almos- Gah!", another of those drill faced things jumped up (from under the floor it seemed like), and hit Sonic, causing his to lose all his rings.

"No-no-no!" Jack yelled excitedly, forcing Sonic to continue running, he was so close to the end, nothing could prevent him from-. "No!" Jack exclaimed as a secomd drill faced creature appeared and hit Sonic, ending the hedgehog's final life. Jack sighed annoyedly, tossing the controller from his hands to the bed next to him. He sulkily crossed his arms and eyed the frozen game screen, the words 'game over' written in white across the screen. After a few more minutes of idly staring at the screen, Jack shrugged to himself and got up to reset the game, (he 'just knew' he'd win 'this time'(!)).

As he stood up to reset the console, a slight knock was heard at his door, he swung round to see an old guy dressed in a waiter's outfit (probably someone his parent's had hired to help set up the party), poke his head around the door, to check if Jack was there, before opening the door fully and speaking to him.

"I don't wish to interrupt, but your parents have asked for you to meet them in the main hall, the elder drawled "Er...oh yeah sure" Replied Jack leaving the game and quietly following the man to the said room. The man bowed and opened the door for Jack to walk in, before closing the door behind him. Leaving Jack alone at the top of the stairs of the room with his parents, who were speaking with several servants, and pointing at the various decorations and tables that were set up within the huge white walled room, (apparently this was where they'd be having the party).

His parents didn't seem to notice that he'd just walked in and continued talking, leaving Jack to gaze round at the beautifully decorated room. He rarely ever got to go in this room (when his parents were away they left the door locked, saying that they only wanted it used for special occasions). The walls were white with elaborate gold framed pictures hung on them, the floor was wood but the stairs he was standing on were white (a half circle shape that jutted out of the wall under the door he'd just walked through).

Jack hung back a few more minutes, waiting for his parents to notice and call him over (Plus he figured that maybe if he was 'really' good, his parents might get him out of the mental ward-couldn't hurt to try!). Finally, Jack gave up waiting and walked down the stairs towards his parents, His mother turned to him as if she hadn't noticed he'd spent the last 10 minutes waiting at the top of the stairs, went to smile and then froze, tapping her still talking husband on the shoulder.

Jack's dad swivelled his head and glanced quickly at Jack, went to talk to the servant again then looked back at Jack, in shock. "Oh for god's sake Jack!", his father yelled, "The party's 2 hours away and you aren't even dressed properly!". **Not even dressed properly? You're never dressed properly Jacky boy!**, a horribly familliar voice chimed in. Jack figeted (tracing the lines of the wooden floor with his right foot, hoping the voice wasn't going to interrupt too much), "I-I thought the party was tomorrow...".

"Well you thought wrong, didn't you!", his father continued, pointing his finger in Jack's face. **Yeah Jacky, you thought WrOnG!** Chuckled the voice, still mocking him. Jack lowered his gaze slightly, trying to ignore the voice. His dad, who was still caught up in the moment, went to say more, but his wife (noticing Jack's sudden, withdrawn body language) stopped him.

"Dear", she said to her husband, as she gently placed her hand on his outstreched arm, "We really don't have time for this, let me take Jack upstairs to get ready, you need to help finish the decorations before the guests arrive". The man nodded and Jack's mother walked out the door, Jack following quickly behind.

* * *

Jack followed her up the stairs (the voice had thankfully, once again, disappeared) and to the bathroom. She stood by the door to face him, "There are some clothes in the bathroom cupboard for you, have a shower, put them on and meet me in the dressing room within the next 20 minutes" she said quickly. Jack looked up at her impassive face. _' So much for an affectionate how are you son?', _"Okay mom", he sighed, as he opened the door and walked in.

He locked the door behind him, suddenly smiling as he did so, being stuck at a mental ward where people were always locking him in or out of places, it was nice to be the one incharge of the locks for once. He began to get ready for his shower...

* * *

**About 15 minutes later:**

A large full length mirror over-hung one of the creamy white walls of the bathroom, a formally dressed Jack (black tux) stood infront of it, posing. "Heh, not too bad I guess", he smirked to himself, "Not too bad at-". **Not bad at all? You look like a complete prat!** "Shut up and stay away from me" Jack hissed. **What? Worried I'll mess up this party and your chance of people finally seeing you as normal. Well don't worry about that, I'll stay away, it's not like you 'need' me to help you 'screw up!', t**he voice faded out

"Yeah right!" sneered Jack. A loud rapid knock came from the bathroom door, his mother's voice speaking after it, "Jack, who are you talking to?". Jack froze, knowing there was no real way to answer it without arousing suspision, he could almost feel the mocking voice laughing at him, even though it wasn't. Jack sighed, shrugged at his own reflection and unlocked the bathroom door.

His mother wasn't there, Jack shrugged again to himself and headed off to the dressing room.

* * *

**In the dressing room:**

"Young master Spicer, please stay still, it'll only take a few more seconds and... there done!". The man who was standing behind and styling (or something to that effect) Jack's hair, picked up a mirror and handed it to Jack. Jack took one look at his reflection and unsteadily gave the mirror back to stylist, his eye twitching as he did so.

He looked purely moronic, his hair had been smoothed out, parted and gelled down to either side of his head. He wanted to say something but thought better of it, he didn't want others mistaking his outburst for a schizophrenic episode.

Without thanking the stylist (Jack certainly didn't feel very thankful!), he jumped off the chair and stepped over to his waiting mom. She looked Jack over, nodded approvingly and left, gesturing for him to follow her.

* * *

**Over an hour later:**

Jack and his smartly dressed parents walked slowly towards the door of the main hall. "And remember the story your father told you" his mother whispered under her breath, smiling at all the new comers. His father mimiced Jack's mother's pretence at being nice to the guests, as he continued "You were staying a boarding school while we were away on a meeting, you don't have schizophrenia, you have never been anywhere near a mental ward... and for god's sakes, just try to act as normal as possible...".

The door was opened for them, they walked in and down the stairs, his parents quickly split up and went to talk to different friends/guests. Jack didn't really know what to do (he didn't exactly know anyone there, despite the fact it was called a family reunion, most of them seemed to be business associates of his parents). Jack just made the most of it anyway and hung around the snack tables, smiling uncomfortably and saying quick hellos to people who apparently knew him, even though he didn't know them.

* * *

**40 minutes, several hellos, and way too many snacks later:**

An overly full Jack continued towards the end of the last table _'Come on Jack... almost there, just 5 more snacks and you'll have tried every single snack in the buffet'. _His hand grabbed what looked to be a giant grape (unfortunately for him, it was actually an olive, which can have a very odd an almost repelling taste to people who haven't tried them before). He stuffed it in his mouth and chewed, tears coming to his eyes as the taste of used gym socks filled his mouth. He sputtered and accidentially swallowed the offending food, he pulled a face of disgust and took a step back, accidentally walking into someone.

"Sorry", both he and a female voice replied, he spun to see a brown haired blue eyed mother, holding her 3 1/2 year old identical, brown haired, blue eyed daughter's hand. He smiled slightly at them and turned to leave, the lady stopped him, grasing hold of his sleeve. "...Wait", she said "You're Jack Spicer... I remember you, I drove you to school when you were in first grade... do you remember that?".

"Well no actually..." Jack began, but the lady interrupted him. "Uh oh, looks like my husband is at the wine again... would you mind...". She gestured to the child who smiled up at him. Jack backed away slightly, his parents had told him "Er... I don't really know how to...". "That's okay", replied the lady "It'll be fine...".

She bent down to girl's level and spoke to her, " Megan, I'm going to leave you with your cousin Jack for a moment while I go talk to your father ok?". The lady smiled to Jack "Her name's Megan, if you hadn't already guessed... see you in a bit".

"Yeah... See ya..." Echoed Jack, feeling slightly uncomfortable at being left in charge of... Megan was it? He felt a tug on his trouser leg and looked to see her staring up at him. "What are you looking at?" He asked stotically. She just smiled and stuck her tongue out at him, he glared and stuck his tongue out at her. She giggled and smiled up at Jack, who couldn't help smiling too.

She tapped his leg mumuring the word "Tic" as she did so, before turning unsteadily and slowly running away. Jack smirked and followed her at a slow pace, to give her the illusion that she was winning before ticing her back. They continued to haphazradly run back and forth around the main hall, eventually managing to annoy too many visitors. Megan ran for the exit to the mansion's garden, Jack grabbed some food and followed her, once outside, he handed her half the snacks and a food fight ensued.

* * *

**A little while later:**

Megan's mother wondered frantically around the room looking for her daughter, her eyes finally resting on Jack's parents, who were talkibng together with some others. Megan's mother walked over and asked if they'd seen their son, with whom she'd left her 4 year old daughter.

Jack's parents exchanged worried looks, the mother told Megan's mother not to worry, while the father discretely went to ask one of his most trusted staff to find Jack 'immediately'.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in the garden:**

Jack and Megan had run out of food to throw so had just continued their game of tic (tag) instead, Jack saw his's father's 'most trusted member of staff' turn the corner. "Uh oh Megan!" Jack joked, "the evil penguin..." (the guy was wearing a black and white suit) "...has come to stop us from having fun... run away!", Jack ran and Megan giggled, running after him.

They ran around the mansion and through the front door, they continued running, Jack letting Megan slightly take the lead as they ran through the mansion's corridors and into the main hall. Jack, (who knew the place like the back of his hand) slowed down as he got through the doors of the main hall, but Megan 'didn't' slow down.

Jack saw it in almost slow motion, Megan continued to run, and tripped on the first step of the white stairs that went down into the hall. Jack's eyes widened as he saw he fall, he reached his arms out to grab her... but it was too late. She tumbled down all seven steps and landed, unmoving at the bottom. Almost the entire party seemed to stop, and watch in horror as they saw her fall and hit the floor. The crowd then looked up and gasped in further horror and disgust as they saw a strange, red-eyed, messy haired boy, whose hair and tux was covered in pieces of vegetables bread and other snacks, his arms were out streched from his body, as if there to push someone...

Jack was still frozen, standing there on the first step, he wanted to see how Megan was, but it was almost like his body refused to move. He suddenly began to realise how silent the party had become. He slowly looked around, to see everyone staring at him... _why am I being stared at? Megan was the one that... _He caught a glance of his still frozen form, in the reflection of a nearby window. He looked a mess, his arms still out-streched and... _'No...'_, he thought to himself, they didn't think that he'd- that he'd pushed her?

"No..." Jack whispered, breaking the silence as he looked round at the accusing eyes, "No... I didn't do this!... Please! You gotta believe me, I didn't...". "Fuck!-NO!".

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

xxemo-princess666xx: Sure you 'could' run but where would you go? Lol. Yea... the story does have a hit of One flew over the cuckoo's nest and Misery, good films but I never did read the books, lol. Alot of the problems that happen with Jack when he's in a drugged or unable state, were pushed along by a sickening video I saw on elderly abuse (the careers could be cruel and sadistic because their patients couldn't fight back). Ja... anyway's, plz keep reading 'n' reviewing, lol.

VampiresTDIfreddyfangirl: No you haven't reviewed before... but thanks lol! 'are we gonna find out Joe's story?'.. You'll just have to wait n see (nods), lol.

Randomnessgirl1: ...Well... the evil voice came back, even though it seems too be more occupied with offing Jack than Diana though... I don't think Diana was intentionally attempting to kill him, too many of those pills were destroying his insides.

Ritsuka189: Lol... if Diana heard that she'd probably run miles lol. Ayame... well, that fic was definetley original... (lol) Jack gets turned into a girl an... (runs out of words to say about the fic). Anyways, thanks for the answer about the pudding cup, I don't think you can get them over here so... ja! Thanks, and plz keep reviewing, lol.

rightknowmore: Cool, thanks for the review no... not 'one' of these reviewers seems to like Diana either, lol.

kitsunesecret: 'When is the story going to switch back to the present?"... er... good question, originally it was meant to switch back within 2 or less chapters but... lol. Am guessing there should 'only (hopefully)' be only two to three more chapters before it switches back the present. (Shrugs) lol.

**As always... Please read and review...**

**Sayonara!**


	8. Home sweet home

****

Re-

**Aclaimer: Timelessdemon stands in the centre of a circle of lawyers, each with a shotgun pointed towards Timelessdemon. Timelessdemon speaks into a broken (duct-tape held-together microphone). "I can neither confirm nor deny the fact that I may or may not own Xiaolin Showdown, CartoonNetwork, Boomerang and/or the infact, the entire universe... But all you believers out there... you know the... the truth... you know the real answer, so I have no need to explain why... (The speech drags on... the lawyers exchange bored/impatient glances, the guns click and the trigger's are pulled). BANG! BANG! BANG! (...You get the picture...).**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so (Sigh... seems to have gone on for slightly longer than that, lol!), the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors. **

**(This possibly and probably is going to stay as... the longest chapter I am going to do for this story, so... enjoy!... or not... lol).**

* * *

**A little while later:**

Megan's mother wondered frantically around the room looking for her daughter, her eyes finally resting on Jack's parents, who were talkibng together with some others. Megan's mother walked over and asked if they'd seen their son, with whom she'd left her 4 year old daughter.

Jack's parents exchanged worried looks, the mother told Megan's mother not to worry, while the father discretely went to ask one of his most trusted staff to find Jack 'immediately'.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in the garden: **

Jack and Megan had run out of food to throw so had just continued their game of tic (tag) instead, Jack saw his's father's 'most trusted member of staff' turn the corner. "Uh oh Megan!" Jack joked, "the evil penguin..." (the guy was wearing a black and white suit) "...has come to stop us from having fun... run away!", Jack ran and Megan giggled, running after him.

They ran around the mansion and through the front door, they continued running, Jack letting Megan slightly take the lead as they ran through the mansion's corridors and into the main hall. Jack, (who knew the place like the back of his hand) slowed down as he got through the doors of the main hall, but Megan 'didn't' slow down.

Jack saw it in almost slow motion, Megan continued to run, and tripped on the first step of the white stairs that went down into the hall. Jack's eyes widened as he saw her fall, he reached his arms out to grab her... but it was too late. She tumbled down all seven steps and landed, unmoving at the bottom. Almost the entire party seemed to stop, and watch in horror as they saw her fall and hit the floor. The crowd then looked up and gasped in further horror and disgust as they saw a strange, red-eyed, messy haired boy, whose hair and tux was covered in pieces of vegetables bread and other snacks, his arms were out streched from his body, as if there to push someone...

Jack was still frozen, standing there on the first step, he wanted to see how Megan was, but it was almost like his body refused to move. He suddenly began to realise how silent the party had become. He slowly looked around, to see everyone staring at him... _why am I being stared at? Megan was the one that... _He caught a glance of his still frozen form, in the reflection of a nearby window. He looked a mess, his arms still out-streched and... _'No...'_, he thought to himself, they didn't think that he'd- that he'd pushed her?

"No..." Jack whispered, breaking the silence as he looked round at the accusing eyes, "No... I didn't do this!... Please! You gotta believe me, I didn't...". "Fuck!-NO!".

* * *

Soon after, his parents had turned up, while Megan was being attended to and looked by her mother, father and several others. Jack didn't get to see much of what happened though, his parents sent him up to his room, several members of staff following and one staff member even being ordered to keep watch outside and prevent Jack from leaving his room.

**

* * *

**

Inside Jack's bedroom:

They're gonna send you back to that mental ward you little psycho, they're gonna lock you up... and after what just happened you ain't ever getting out.

"Shut up!" Jack muttered, as he sat on the edge of his bed, glaring at the dark blue carpet under his feet. He knew the voice was right, though, he couldn't stay here, there was no way anyone would forgive him (even though it wan't really his fault).

He just had to get out of there, he stepped over to the only window in his room and carefully looked through it, no one was outside it seemed clear enough, he was on the third floor though, so getting to the ground without also getting seriously injured was gonna take some planning. He turned back to face his room, his eyes scanning the place for something he could use to climb out. His eyes finally landed on it (his bedsheets).

* * *

After spending the last 10 minutes hastily pulling out the cushiony pieces within his covers, he'd finally managed to make what could only be described as a 'very' unreliable looking 'rope'... Even so, it was his only way of getting out (he knew someone was bound to notice him if he attempted to sneak out through the house). He opened the window, hastily looked around again to check if anyone was there, then lowered the rope through the window to check how long it was... it nearly reached the grass on the ground below but he knew he had to also tie the other end onto something heavier than himself, meaning that the rope would be further away from the ground when he was finished.

He continued to hold the rope as his eyes once again scanned the room for somethng he could tie the end of the rope to- KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Came the sound from his door, Jack nearly dropped the rope in suprise and swung his head back to face the door. "...Wh-who is it?", Jack tentavialey asked, praying to every god under the sun that whoever it was didn't open the door. "It's Turner... Megan's dad..." came the gruff reply. Jack's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, _'Oh shit, this guys gonna seek revenge for his daughter and I didn't even...'_. (The whispers began to start up again- almost as if brought on by his apprehension), Jack forced himself to calm down and the whispers began to thankfully quiet down as well.

"...is Megan alright?..." Jack shakily asked, not wanting to anger the father (...Turner wasn't it?). "Yeah" Replied Turner, "She's fine, a few bruises but mostly she's just a bit shaken up... you okay?".

Jack paused (halfway through tying one end of the rope onto the radiator next to his window), "Er... yeah am okay" Jack answered, suprised that he was actually being asked that. "That's good to hear" replied Turner (still behind the door), "I don't think it's right... you being sent to a mental ward and all... your mom told me... you've been stuck in there over a month... you come out to spend some time with your family, act out a little(completely justified) and what happens? You're locked up again.. this time in your 'own room'- I truly feel sorry for whats happened... it's not your fault".

"You mean that?" Jack asked, leaving the rope tied to the radiator and quietly walking over to the door, so he could better hear the man. "Of course... it's difficult being a kid, and I'm sure having schizophrenia doesn't help in the least". Jack laughed out loud slightly, Turner was right there. "So if you're not too busy... would you wanna play soccer with me in what about 5...10 minutes?". There was an uncomfortable silence so Turner just continued, "It'll be ok... all the other guests have left, me, the wife and Megan are staying over for the night anyway... no one is going to be angry with you...".

Jack thought it over and then answered "Yeah... alright I'll see you down stairs in 10 (minutes) yeah?". "Cool..." laughed Turner's voice "...am the one with the green shirt... oh... and Jack... take the stairs, not the window alright?".

Jack paused (unsure whether the guy was joking or actually knew he'd been attempting to escape), and laughed uncomfortably before going over to his cupboard to find something a bit less restricting than the food covered tux he was wearing.

* * *

**Outside, in one of the many Spicer gardens:**

"Come on Jack! Almost got it and... goal!" Jack smirked slightly as the brown haired blue eyed man dashed around the garden like a maniac...he'd only known Turner for just over half an hour and he already liked him, he was great, joking around, a confidence booster and brilliant at sports... why couldn't his own dad be more like that?

Jack shrugged the thought off as he saw Turner charging for the goal, kicking the ball ahead of himself, nearing one of the goal posts (they'd basically placed a line of sticks either side of the garden and called them posts). Jack ran along side Turner, looking for an opening where he could attempt to kick the ball away from Turner and take it back to the other goal post. No chance, Turner was moving too fast. As Jack made a last ditch attempt to kick the ball away from Turner, Turner kicked the ball, they somehow managed to trip each other up, both doing identical prat falls into the dirt.

Jack got up and shook the dirt from his hair before looking back at Turner who... wasn't getting up!

Jack rushed over to Turner's still form... not something else he was gonna be blamed for? Jack stood and leaned slightly over, to look the guy in the face "...Turner...?". Turner's eyes flashed open and he shot up at Jack, "Roar!".

Jack jumped back in suprise and fell on his butt, he turned to the guy and they both glared at each other... before bursting into fits of laughter, dusting themselves off and restarting the game.

* * *

**Later:**

Jack smirked to himself as he walked into his bedroom, closing the door behind him and changing into his pajamas. After 30 or so more minutes of soccer, he and Turner had gone back into the house to have a talk with Jack's parents... Turner had assured them that Jack was forgiven and also, to ask Jack and his parents back to his and his wife's house for Jack's last day away from the ward, so that Jack could appologise to Megan properly and also go out for ice cream. Jack smiled lightly as he snuggled under the covers of his bed... everything was going better than it had done in along time.

* * *

**The next day:**

Jack's and Megan's parents walked side by side along the beach, talking earnestly together. While Jack and Megan ate ice cream and looked at the various sandcastles people made or were making. No one had said anything to Megan about Jack pushing her off the stairs and Megan didn't seem to hold a grudge anyway, (which was fine by Jack).

"Oooh! All the pretty sandcastles!" Megan exclaimed as she finished her ice cream, she dropped to her knees and began to scoop up some sand, marvelling at how it fell from her hands before looking up and continuing, "Jackie, will you help me make sandcastle?". Jack quickly downed his ice cream and sat next to her smiling, "Yeah sure!".

The trip to beach was fantastic, He and Megan had made a huge (3 and a half foot) sandcastle and then built mini ones around it, Turner had let them bury him up to his neck in sand (Jack's dad had begrudgingly let them bury him up to just below his knees). He, Megan, Turner and (once again: begrudgingly) Jack's dad, had gone swiming in the water while his and Megan's moms had sunbathed and swapped stories... and best of all (or at least what Jack thought was best), he hadn't had any delusions the whole way through.

Finally the sun began to dip in the horizon, they packed up the cars and left for Megan's house, (to Jack's delight... the ward had phoned ahead and said that they couldn't pick him up until tommorrrow, so his parents would either have to wait or drive him there themselves...).

* * *

They finally got to Megan's house... it was basically as big as the Spicer mansion was, and Jack had a sneaking suspicion that somewhere along the lines he was going to manage to get lost within the place. A sleeping Megan was being carried by her mother, who continued through the corridor and up a flight of stairs (probably putting Megan to bed), his parents headed up stairs aswell, talking about statisics. Jack and Turner ambled in after them, while having a mock sword fight with Turner, (using the fold-up umbrellas as swords) as they brought the remainder of the beach equipment into the house.

Jack and Turner evenually ended up in the livingroom/lounge- playing on the Xbox. Turner's wife had come in to give them some snacks before heading off to bed herself. Jack and Turner continued to play head to head fighting games... stopping only to eat crisps and drink orange juice. Eventually, by midnight they'd given up playing Xbox, Jack winning 7 out of 10 matches (...even though he did have a sneaking suspiciousion that Turner had let him win).

The both sat on the brown leather sofa, watching an old episode of The Simpsons laughing lightly everytime Homer said 'D'oh!', the show finished and went to adverts. Jack looked up at the clock... 12:00, that time tomorrow he'd be leaving and going back to... that place. At the mere thought, Jack felt tears begin to slide down his face, he quickly turned his head so Turner couldn't see him crying, but it was too late.

"Hey... hey now... what's going on here?" Turner asked softly looking over to Jack. "Nothing... it's nothing" Jack quickly replied lifting his arm to hastily wipe away his tears. Turner leaned over and took hold of Jack's arm, stopping Jack from wiping the said tears, and stared into Jack's eyes. "Really... why are you so upset?"

**Careful Jack... **came a strangley (very slightly russian) accented voice (Adria?). Jack ignored it and looked up at Turner "I'm just... I don't want to go back to the mental ward...I don't like it there..." A few more tears ran freely down Jack's face, Turner smiled softly, hushing Jack and leaning forward to carefully lick the tears off Jack's face, (...wait what?).

Jack sat there in slight shock, _'did he just...?'_. "It's okay Jack... you'll be fine" Turner continued "Just tell me all about it". Jack smiled uncomfortably, wanting to have a just little more space between them while he spoke. He tried to gently pull his arm away from Turner's grip, but Turner didn't seem to notice, placing the arm that wasn't holding Jack's arm around Jack's back and pulling him closer into a hug.

"So..." Turner whispered into Jack's ear "Tell me about this ward and whats wrong with it". "Well" Jack began, attempting to push Turner away from him slightly. "Everything's white...". "Uh huh..." came the reply, Turner's dark blue eyes staring intensely into Jack's blood red ones. Jack shifted his gaze, "... and there's this lady...". Turner's hand holding Jack's back began to move in circles. "...S-she kinda scares me sometimes" Jack stuttered as the hand holding his arm, glided up to hold his wrist instead, and forced Jack's limp hand to stroke Turner's face.

Jack began to feel sick as Turner licked the hand that was forced to stroke the man's face. Jack continued almost as if it was a bad dream that would soon go away. "At one point she forced to me to take these pills and...". Jack's voice faltered as he felt a hand delve into his trousers and play with the hem of his boxer shorts.

**Jack, if you don't like it, don't let it happen!** Came Adria's strong voice. "P-lease stop!" Jack whispered. Turner paused and looked down at Jack, "What...?". "I...I don't like this... stop it!" Jack repeated with slightly more confidence. Turner looked at Jack, a puzzled look on his face, as he moved his arms to fit in a more comfortable position, (around Jack's back instead) "You don't like what... This?". Turner pulled Jack closer and began to kiss his neck. Jack freaked but Adria calmed him down, **Don't let it happen there's a cup on the table... put it to good use... **

Turner continued to plant kisses along Jack's neck, as Jack subtly grabbed the cup off the side of the table (that was next to the sofa). Jack glanced at the cup, vaguely noticing it's floral design before looking back at the unnoticing Turner. Turner began to trace his kisses further down Jack's neck, his hands gliding up and under Jack's shirt. Jack's gaze and eyes turned violent, he grasped the cup tightly and swung.

* * *

**Upstairs:**

SMASH! The sound of crockery breaking, followed by a yell of pain and a high pitched screaming/shouting eminated from downstairs. Successfully breaking the sleep of Jack's and Megan's parents, (Thankfully, Megan slept on... blissfully unaware). The parents rushed out of their rooms, meeting each other at the top of the stairs, all rapidly swapping the 'what's going on' questions that no one knew the answer to.

They paused as they heard a male's voice say something, a high pitch scream of fury, something else being broken and the high pitched voice coninue it's scream/shouting rant. The parents hastily exchanged glances, already guessing what they'd find, and quickly ran downstairs.

Jack's dad took the lead as they got to the door of the lounge, he carefully opened the door, the noise continuing. The 2 other parent's walked in after Jack's dad and abruptly stopped. A table had been broken, several cups thrown and smashed, Turner was backed against a wall in the corner of the room. Jack held a long shard of crockery in his hand, glaring up at Turner with a look of pure rage in his eyes.

"Oh my god!" Jack's mom yelled, sucessfully breaking Jack's attention, his eyes seemed to suddenly lose their violent flare. He turned and staggered towards his mom, suddenly afraid of Turner and looking for comfort. Sadly for Jack, all his mom looked at was the dagger like piece of crockery he still held (she screamed and backed away). Jack gave her a look of confusion, continuing to walk after her, (almost seeming to forget the offending weapon he was holding).

His mother backed herself into a corner, his dad grabbed hold of the bed cover he'd been using as a makeshift over coat on the way downstairs, and wrapped it around Jack's body. Jack immediately dropped the crokery and began to struggle, as he felt his arms being restrained by the thick cover.

The memories of Turner restraining him came back in waves, a cruel dark voice began laughing at him and the whispers followed in waves, dark forms of every kind seemed to move around the room, making the room become darker and darker and darker. He screamed and struggled, his dad having to keep a tight grip around Jack's torso to prevent him from escaping, Jack seemed to faze out of reality and just continued to scream, not calming down for almost 2 hours.

* * *

**Almost 2 hours later:**

The voices and cruel laughter began to quiet down, the dark figures becoming less and less, until Jack finally able to see the bright lights of the passing lampposts... passing lamp posts? He slowly looked up through the window (realising he was in a car), his parents were in the front, he still had the cover around him but he was no longer being restrained into (he let the cover fall off). They were in Turner's BMW and as he looked around he realised why, blacked out windows, a black metal fence between him in the backseat and his parents in the front seat, oh yes... he knew why he was in 'that' car.

"You're taking me back there aren't you", it was more of a statement than a question and Jack's parent's didn't know how to react. His dad eventually answered with a quick "Yes", turned on the radio and continued to drive, successfully fazing out anything else Jack may have wanted to say. Jack spent the next few minutes gazing around the car, almost wishing for a little momento of the outside world, but he found nothing. His arm slipped over the arm rest as the car went into the parking lot. There was something behind the arm rest, 2 small items, not having time to look, he quickly grabbed the two items and shoved them into his pocket just before the car stopped. He wasn't too sure how he was going to keep his 2 new possessions (whatever they were) with him, but it couldn't hurt to try.

The car stopped, his dad got out first, his mom hesistantely doing the same (she was still a bit shaken up from the dagger like crockery incident). His dad walked around to the window nearest Jack and tapped it slightly, before speaking, his muffled voice somehow managing to find it's way into the car. "Now Jack, in a minute I'm going unlock the door and let you out, you are going to hold both mine and your mother's hand all the way to the ward, and you are not to even attempt to escape, do I make myself clear?". Jack nodded, then remembering the windows were blacked out, answered, "Yes dad".

The door was opened and he stepped out, his dad immediatley grabbed Jack's hand as if he might bolt any minute. His mother, her shoulder length red hair blowing slightly in the wind, hesitantely grasped hold of Jack's other hand as he purposely held it out to her. A cynical thought entered his head, as they all walked across the car park and into the mental ward's reception; that this was one of the few times that his parents had voluntarily touched or held him, and even that probably wasn't going to happen again for a long time after this.

They reached the desk and realised that there was no one there, his dad let go of his hand and impatiently rang the bell on the desk. Jack looked up at the silver clock hanging on the white wall (apparently it was 2:00am).

Eventually, a tired looking receptionist walked over. "Family of one-Jack Spicer?", her telephone like voice lazily asked, his parents both nodded. "Very good..." She yawned, "You'll need to sign some forms and legal... (yawn)... stuff, I'll give you a minute or two alone for goodbyes, while I go and get the... (yawn!)... documents and..." She didn't continue, but just walked off to go and collect the said papers.

Jack immediately turned to his mother and held out his arms to her. She gave him a slightly horrified look, let go of the one hand she had been holding and stepped away from him. He tried to get closer to her but his father stepped in his way and bent down to Jack's level, "No more funny business alright... just get better as soon as possible". Jack nodded and went to hug the stotic man, his dad mereley pushed Jack away slightly and a strong arm grasped hold of Jack's shoulder, he looked up to see another one of those burly guards.

"You're finished saying your goodbyes... yes?" the gruff voiced guard asked. Jack went to reply no but his dad beat him to it, "Yes... we're finished, goodbye Jack-". His parents turned away to talk with the receptionist, Jack looked back at them as the guard ushered him away, he called out "I'm sorry... Mom, Dad, I love you!". They didn't even bother to look up and the said guard felt slightly sorry for the redhead, as he saw the boy lower his head slightly and walk in a much more huddled, under-confident way, when he realised that his parents weren't going to answer back.

* * *

**Back in his room:**

Jack heard the lock on his door click shut and he stared around, "Welcome home Jack...". He sat down on his bed, trying to think of something to cheer himself up with, then he remembered He stuck his hand into his pocket and brought out the two items he'd managed to sneak into his room, (apperentely the staff were to sleepy to search him and make him change into those horrible plasticy white clothes). He smirked further to himself, as looked down at the green short sleeved shirt and blue trousers he was wearing, and realised that he was probably the most colourfully dressed person in the whole mental block. His smile faltered however, as he saw the two salvaged items- a black pencil and sharperner- great(!), what was he gonna do with that? Draw a pwetty picutuwe on de wall(!).

_'Waste not want not'_, he shrugged to himself, hid them under his matteress and lay down, staring up at the (yep you guessed it!) 'white' ceiling.

_'I'll get out of here... I will!'_, he thought to himself, _'It's just gonna take some careful plannin-'_. Knock Knock! He heard his door being unlocked and he turned to see the guard smiling slightly as he gruffly said, "There's some people here to see you". Two well dressed, red haired people steped in- his parents!

Jack sat bolt up in his bed as his mother ran over, sitting next to him and almost bursting into happy tears as she held him. "Oh Jack!" She said, "Megan's mother, she phoned up the mental ward and told us everything that happened, Megan told her she'd tripped and there was a camera in the lounge, Turner apparently left it on. And...oh Jack, it showed everything that happened... I'm so sorry I didn't believe you, we both are...".

Jack smiled as she hugged him tightly and looked to his father, who laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "So... what does this mean then...?" Jack tentivaley asked. His dad smiled warmly back , "It means that we're gonna get you unadmitted imediately, and start spending a whole lot more time with you... Because I love you". His mother glanced up at his dad before looking back at Jack and continuing, "...No... We 'both' love you!".

It felt like everything in his body had a warm tingling sensation to it, he hugged them both tightly and squeezed his eyes shut, he just knew things would work out for him... He opened his eyes and looked back up at them, ...he just knew...it? He blinked, where were they? His head swung back and forth they weren't there!... They never had been...

**But look at it this way Jacky boy...** The horrible voice suddenly said, ...**You've still got me!. **A blue eyed, A4 paper white, clothes-less manikin appeared to walk thorugh the wall, it leaned over Jack's bed and pointed the base of his head towards Jack. It slowly reached it's stiff arms up and peeled the odd skin white off it's head, to reveal a blood covered white skull underneath. Jack screamed and frantically moved away, managing to accidentally fall off the side of the bed and cut his arm (on the white wood of the bed) in the process.

He ignored it and concentrated on the manikin. It was slowly edging it's way closer, Jack desperately clawed at the wall he was backed against, trying to find an escape. The whispers began again, one loud enough for him to hear **...need a wall... a wall of blood to hide... a wall of blood...** Jack turned his head from the monstrous thing and looked at his cut and bleeding arm. He dipped a finger into the blood, hastily drew a circle around him on the floor and waited. The manikin-creature-thing drew closer, stepped onto the circle of blood and- vanished (the whispers vanishing too)... into thin air.

Jack blinked _'...It worked?'_, he sat there for a little while, in suprise and excitement at his new found barrage against the world, before quickly setting about drawing a wider circle. As his blood covered fingers drew across the wall, his excitement grew, he'd finally found something that could stop his schizophrenia... all he needed was for the staff to see... and he was gonna get out sooner then expected!

* * *

**To previous reviewers:**

Ritsuka189: Jeez! 100 chapters? I couldn't imagine being able to read or write that much in one go! (Imagines it anyway and brain hamster dies... some people have a brain... I just have a hamster that runs on a wheel... anyways...). Somehow I don't think yelling at the voice works but... (shrugs), ja.. can't hurt to try! Please continue to read and review... lol.

Kitsunesecret: Heh, Megan seemed to be alright but it's nice that you were concerned, lol.

Randomnessgirl1: Seriously? You're gonna blow Diana up? (Thinks about it), ...Heh, not a bad idea! ...Welcome to the (dark) Heylin side! Lol!

xxemo-princess666xx: Cool... 'I also' like that I incorporated his cousin and answer back on reviews...lol! Seriously though... you've read all Xiaolin Showdown fics! ...I wish I had that much time... (sigh!).

**As always... Please read and review...**

**Sayonara!**


	9. Smile

****

Re-

**Aclaimer: The ghost of Timelessdemon slowly drifts upwards to the sky. "Yup the lawyers killed me but, heh! Since that is truly the worst they can do... I've just got a few words to leave the readers with- I own everythin-". One of the lawyers somehow pulls Timelessdemon's ghost into a vaccum. Timelessdemon's voice eminates from the vaccum bag, "Not fair!".**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so (Sigh... seems to have gone on for slightly longer than that, lol!), the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors. **

**(This chapter caused one huge case of writer's block... but don't worry I'm cured now! (Empty silence without even grasshoppers chirping) ...gee thanks for your concern... lol. Anyways... on with the chapter!).**

* * *

**Back in his room:**

He blinked, where were they? His head swung back and forth they weren't there!... They never had been...

**But look at it this way Jacky boy...** The horrible voice suddenly said, ...**You've still got me!. **A blue eyed, A4 paper white, clothes-less manikin appeared to walk thorugh the wall, it leaned over Jack's bed and pointed the base of his head towards Jack. It slowly reached it's stiff arms up and peeled the odd skin white off it's head, to reveal a blood covered white skull underneath. Jack screamed and frantically moved away, managing to accidentally fall off the side of the bed and cut his arm (on the white wood of the bed) in the process.

He ignored it and concentrated on the manikin. It was slowly edging it's way closer, Jack desperately clawed at the wall he was backed against, trying to find an escape. The whispers began again, one loud enough for him to hear **...need a wall... a wall of blood to hide... a wall of blood...** Jack turned his head from the monstrous thing and looked at his cut and bleeding arm. He dipped a finger into the blood, hastily drew a circle around him on the floor and waited. The manikin-creature-thing drew closer, stepped onto the circle of blood and- vanished (the whispers vanishing too)... into thin air.

Jack blinked _'...It worked?'_, he sat there for a little while, in suprise and excitement at his new found barrage against the world, before quickly setting about drawing a wider circle. As his blood covered fingers drew across the wall, his excitement grew, he'd finally found something that could stop his schizophrenia... all he needed was for the staff to see... and he was gonna get out sooner then expected!

* * *

**In the morning:**

"Jack!", Diana's singsong voice sounded out as she knocked on his still-locked door, and continued in singsong, "You need to get up soon, it's almost breakfast time!". The footsteps faded out as she gave Jack a few minutes to get out of bed before she unlocked the door. Five minutes later, the footsteps drew closer again. "Jack! You ready? ...I'll going to open the door now!" (still in singsong) Diana knocked again and waited for Jack to respond... he didn't.

Diana dropped the singsong voice and fumbled for the keys, speaking tentavively, "Jack... are you okay?...". She unlocked the door and opened it, "Jac- Shit!". She stared around the usually white room, starting from near the bed, a straight line (of what she knew to be blood), was drawn. As her eyes followed it around the room, she saw that the line began to get more and more patterned (starting from a simple straight line and morphing into people holding hands, smiley faces, dragons and other stuff), all of it connecting together (managing to look like some obsure joined hand-writing). At first she'd thought Jack had somehow escaped, but she could still heard his voice.

As her eyes followed the line, she finally saw him, sitting at the third painted corner of the room, shivering and mumbling to himself, drawing more blood lines, apparentely aiming to cover all four corners with the same horrendous pattern.

Diana quickly stepped out of the room and called for help, before tentaively walking over to Jack and bending down to his level (he was sitting on the floor), he ignored and continued to paint.

"Hey Jacky... hey what are you doing there?... Can you hear me Jac-". Jack didn't seem to realise (or care) she was there and continued to paint, frowning slightly when the arm he was using for a palete was no longer dripping blood. He brought his right hand down to his left arm and attempted to re-open the wound. "No-no honey don't do that", Jack again didn't seem to hear her, instead choosing to stare blankly the hand Diana had put aound his left, to prevent him from re-opening the wound. The footsteps sounded closer and eventually 4 nurses appeared and came through the door.

Jack looked up as he heard the heavy footsteps (he could in truth, hear everything, he just didn't want his concentration to be broken), he looked up from the nurses to the now wide open door... wait, wide open door? They couldn't do that! He was purifying the room, they were letting in- the manikin suddenly appeared, walking almost jollily towards Jack, it paused to open it's piercing blue eyes and out stretched it's hand towards Jack. Walking closer, it's blue eyes began to fizz and melt, leaving two gaping holes staring right at Jack. Jack screamed and attempted to back away.

For no reason that she could see, Jack began to scream and attempt to back away into the blood-painted wall. Diana wrapped her arms around Jack in an attempt to calm him down, he continued to scream regardless. Diana glanced back at the other nurses, gave a slight sad frown and shook her head. They walked closer and helped to lift the still screaming Jack to his feet and walked him out of the room.

* * *

**An hour later, in the psychiatrist's room:**

"...and you say that you were self-harming in order to-", "I wasn't self-harming!" Jack replied indignentaly to the over 40's man who sat casually in a red leather arm chair, facing him. "I was creating a barrier! Don't put words in my mouth that I never said!". Diana who stood behind Jack gave his shoulder a (what should have been) comforting squeeze, as she tried to shush him. Jack looked back at her and glared.

The psychiatrist continued, "A barrier from what Mr Spicer?". Jack abandoned his glaring at the seemingly oblivious Diana and continued, "From... Schizophrenia, from... fear, from... anything that I can't control... like the manikin... ". "I see...", replied the psychiatrist, looking over his rimmed glasses at a relieved-that-someone-understood Jack, "You know Jack, schizophrenia does have tendency to cause people to feel out of control- a very scary feeling I'm sure. I also know that many people people who feel out of control, sometimes harm themselves, as a way of gaining this desired control-".

"But I wasn't self-harming!" Jack interrupted impatiently, "I was drawing blood lines across the corners to purify the room, but the nurses came in and left the door wide open so-". "Jack" The psychiatrist re-interuppted, "We will get to that part in a minute, the first thing we need to identify is the fact that you can't admitt that you were self-harming". "But I wasn't!", the psychiatrist held his hand in the air, gesturing for Jack to stop talking.

"Look I'll make it easy for you... when Diana was with you, (and you do aknowledge that you knew she was there even though you not respond to her), your arm stopped bleeding and you attempted to re-open it... now that would cause you...". Jack sighed before giving the answer he knew the psychiatrist wanted, "...Harm". "Harm that was caused by...?", "Myself" Jack mumbled.

"Thank-you Jack" The psychiatrist answered, "and now that you have finally admitted to self-harming, we can talk about ways to prevent it from becoming a habit...".

* * *

**Hours later (dinner time in the cafeteria):**

Jack and Diana walked into the cafeteria, Jack was now in quite a bad mood. None of the nurses, doctors or even the psychiatrist had listened to him explaining how he was trying to purify the room. They were all too busy looking at his arm and telling him how 'self harming was not the answer'.

Jack got his food and walked over to the table Joe was sitting at (Diana thankfully not following). Joe looked up, beaming as Jack sat down across from him, "Hey Jack! How'd the holiday go?". Jack pushed the food round his plate, "Yeah it was alright... yeah". Joe gave him a disbelieving look so Jack continued, "How was it here?". Joe smirked "Ah you know! Same old boring white walls and stuff... Seriously though Jack, 'you' got to go and see your family and stuff, I would of thought you'd have better stories than just 'yeah it was alright'!".

"Yeah" Jack replied monotoneously, "You'd think so but...". "Jack!" Diana's (beyond) annoying voice broke through the coversation, "Eat your food quickly, I need to give you your medication sooner rather than later". Joe gave Jack a quizical look as Diana wondered off again, "I thought you were off the medication". "Yeah well! Jack muttered, unconciously clutching his banaged left arm tightly,"I guess they found other reasons to put me back on it".

Joe glanced at Jack's bandaged arm and groaned, "Oh man! You self-harmed? No wonder they're being so-". "I WASN'T SELF-HARMING!", Jack practically screamed, causing half of the cafeteria to turn and stare at him. Jack huddled over his food and continued to instead, whisper to Joe, "It doesn't matter anyway, after this I'm never getting out...". Joe shifted in his seat, rolling his eyes and smirking at Jack, "Of course you'll get out eventually! Everyone does!".

Jack's 'now' cold eyes met Joe's gaze, "If 'everyone' gets out, then why are 'you' still here?", Joe's smirk faltered slightly and Jack turned away to watch Diana walk around the cafeteria. "Face it... the only way I'll ever leave is if I escape, or die... nothing matters anymore." A broad smile suddenly replaced Jack's previously sullen pale features, "...Nothing matters anymore!". Joe confusedly glanced towards Jack (who watching Diana draw nearer), "Er... Jack, am not sure I get what you...".

Diana appeared next to Jack, and smiled, Jack (for once) smiling back at her. "Hey there Jacky, are you ready for your needle?" (they'd decided it would be easier to inject him, rather than force him to take pills). "Yes Diana", Jack calmly replied. Diana nodded, she kneeled down and rolled up his sleeve dabbing his arm with disinfectant.

Jack gave the confused and bewildered Joe a quick smirk as Diana looked in her pocket for the injection. Suddenly and without faltering, Jack grapped his plate and swung it into Diana's face. She fell to the floor, he stood up and hit her twice more around the head, unril she stopped moving. He stood there, watching over her still form, he'd done it, he'd won... he was free!

A happy yet crazed look adorned his face, he stepped onto the top of his table, ignoring sudden silence and shocked looks he was recieving from others within the cafeteria (the staff and 'awake' patients). He also ignored Joe's pleas telling Jack to "For god sakes stop before you make it worse!". Jack smiled to his audience, gently swung his arms out as if getting ready to hug something really big, closed his eyes and sang along to the music that had suddenly begun to play (he sub-conciously knew there there was no music actually playing, but he didn't care).

_"I am that champion my friends!_

_Duh duh!_

_I'll keep on fighting till the end!_

_Duh duh duh, duh!_

_I am the champion!_

_I am the champion!_

_No time for losers cuz I am the champion... OF THE WORLD!"_

"Quickly grab him!" Jack re-opened his eyes to see chaos before him, patients attacking each other and staff, Joe had yet again vanished, Diana was being taken away on a gernsey and the speaker from before, along with two others, were attempting to carefully corner and grab him.

Jack turned, jumped off the table and ran out of the cafeteria. The same 3 staff members chasing after him. He turned a corner and saw Joe -no time for a chat- he continued to run. "Jack stop!", Joe called after him, "You''ll just make it worse for yourself!". Jack just ignored Joe as he ran past him, "Wait! Where the hell are you gonna go?".

Jack continued to run through the corridors, heading for the way out, and desperately hoping he hadn't gone the wrong way, finally he saw it... The exit door, hearing the 3 other's running footsteps get closer, Jack ran like a 'manic' to the door. His pale hand closed around the round gold-painted handle and he turned it- Locked!.

Jack looked back the way he'd came the 3 staff members were there now, slowly walking towards him. There was no where for him to run, Jack muttered angrily to himself and frantically pulled the door handle, hoping by some miracle, that the door would change it's mind and open instead- no such luck!

Jack felt a hand touch his shoulder and he gave up, he let go of the door handle and turned slowly round to face them. One of them gave him a smile but he didn't return it. He slid down the door in defeat and buried his head into his knees, listening as the three stood together and talked for a few minutes. Eventually was decided that the male blonde haired doctor would take Jack back to his room and administer the medication there, while the other two went back to help sort out the mess in the cafeteria.

* * *

"Come on, Jack wasn't it?... Let's go", the doctor helped Jack up and walked him away from the exit door. Jack glanced sadly back at the exit door, as he was walked back to his own room. **He's gonna kill you, ya crazy bastard!**, the dark voice uttered. "Go away!" Jack muttered at it, "Don't tell 'me' to go away", the doctor replied quietly (thinking that Jack had been telling him to 'go away').

Jack looked up worriedly at the doctor "No I didn't mean yo-". **He knows exactly what you meant Jacky boy, and don't worry... I won't go away... not for a long while! **The floor beneath him felt like it was quaking, a hole appeared in the wall ahead, the manikin stepped through it. Jack screamed and tried to run away.

The doctor held Jack's shoulder as he walked the boy back to his ward, suddenly for no reason at all, the boy began to scream and atttempted to run away. The doctor grasped both of Jack's arms, preventing Jack from going anywhere, and continued to pull the boy through the long white corridor.

Jack screamed louder as the unwitting doctor prevented him from getting away, the manikin walked slowly after them. Eventually they reached Jack's room, as the doctor spent time unlocking the door, Jack gave a hasty look around. The manikin had gone (vanished), along with the cruel voice. Jack gave a short sigh of relief before being pulled into his now unlocked room. He stared around his room as the doctor went to close the door- the manikin was sitting on his bed waiting for him. It winked and gave him a sadistic smirk-Jack screamed and tried to get past the doctor and out of the door as fast as possible.

The doctor grabbed Jack around his middle and attempted to stop him from escaping. In all the frantic confusion, Jack bit down hard on the doctor's arm. The doctor yelled and threw Jack to the floor, quickly closing and locking the door, before stepping over to Jack's shaking form.

"Easy now... " the doctor said tentivley as if speaking to a frightened wild animal, "I'm just going to give you some nice medication and then you'll be fine... okay?". Jack looked up from the floor and just shook his head in responce, glaring when the doctor attempted to get closer.

Eventually the doctor had had enough and glared back, "You know what Jack? You think 'you're' having a hard time? I was only just put in charge of this ward a week ago... a great premotion yeah? But you within a flash, manage to sabotage the beautiful peace that the cafeteria, staff and patients all had. Do you have any fucking idea how much of a hard time that gives 'me' Jack?", the doctor gave a well aimed kick to Jack's stomach.

Jack (only half understanding what was happening) grunted in pain, quickly curled his arms around the doctor's leg and bit down. The doctor yelled and hastily kicked Jack away with his other leg. Jack sat on his knees in shock at having the air knocked out of him, the doctor took the opportunity to grab Jack by the scruff of the neck and force him up against the wall.

The doctor glared slightly at Jack as he held him by the neck with one hand, before sighing. He took the needle out of his pocket with his other hand. Jack struggled, but to no avail, the doctor found a vain on one of Jack's bare arms and injected the substance. Jack immediately stopped struggling, knowing it was no longer any use. "I just wanna go home..." Jack whispered, the doctor shrugged indifferently, "We can't let you go while your still a danger to society". Jack sniggered as he muttered to himself, "At least Diana's outta the picture... that's one down-". The doctor face turned sour, he carelessly let Jack drop to a heap on the floor.

"You know what Jack?" the doctor snapped as he put the needle away, "I don't think that medication acts as fast as it's meant to". Jack struggled to move or speak and failed. The doctor chuckled and stepped over to Jack, lifting his pale hand and letting it fall. "No... I don't think it works fast at all... in fact, I think I gave you the medication and left you in your bed", saying that, the man picked up the immobile Jack and tucked him up in his bed, giving Jack's head a fatherly pat before turning to leave.

"But I left too soon..." the doctor said, pausing at the door and turning back to face Jack, "...The medication hadn't properly taken it's course, you managed to get out of bed". So saying, the doctor lunged forward and kicked Jack's bed over. Jack being unable to do hardly anything but breath and blink, rolled off the bed, hitting the hard floor and wall hard, stuck on his side facing the wall.

The doctor paced over to Jack's still form, grabbing hold of the back of Jack's white (ward issued) shirt, "You then crawled over to the wall". The doctor pulled Jack across the stony floor, Jack's chin, torso, arms and legs scaping painfully across the uneven stone. "But you couldn't make up your mind which wall". The doctor continued to drag Jack around the room for the minute or so, before choosing a wall and letting Jack drop, his uncontrolable head hitting the floor.

Jack lay face down, staring at floor, unable to see what the man was doing, feeling the blood dripping from his chin, torso, arms and legs and being unable to observe the injuries. No time for that though, as the doctor continued his story.

"You began to see things and hear voices, you attempted to leave...", the doctor grabbed the back of Jack's shirt again and lifted him to his feet. Holding Jack upright with one hand. The doctor frantically hit and kicked Jack into the wall (repeatedly using him like a punching bag), before stopping and turning Jack to look at him, "...but of course that didn't work... you decided to try and find a different exit...". He let Jack fall to the floor, and pulled him back along the stone floor, over to his knocked-over bed, "but the medication began to take it's effect".

The doctor dropped Jack, face down on the bed covers, which was at least less painful. "But you struggled, got caught up in the covers...", the doctor turned Jack around on his back, so the cover wound around him.

Jack stared blearaly up at the man, "...You began to suffocate". So saying, the man grabbed part of the bed cover and clamped it over Jack's nose and mouth. Jack's eyes widened and he stared up, frantically pleading to the older man with his eyes. "You couldn't move, you just had to lay there and suffocate, your throat burning for air, black dots appearing infront of your eyes...".

It had been over a minute without oxygen, the doctor smirked at Jack's frozen, horrifyed face, before removing the bed cover, allowing Jack to take in big breaths of oxygen. "...When somehow the medication lost it's grip, you managed to struggle free". The doctor flipped Jack over onto his stomach and pulled him out of the covers, across the floor, to the closest corner, and held him up in a sitting postion.

"You didn't want to be paralysed again so you hit your head on the wall, trying to use the pain to keep your body awake", the doctor gripped Jack's red hair and repeated bashed his forehead into the wall. Jack closed his eyes as tight possible, as this head rushed forwards to hit the wall. Eventually the doctor let go, Jack could feel his forehead dripping with what he hoped was sweat (but knew was probably blood).

"You then felt the need to draw more lines on the wall..." the doctor gripped Jack's right hand and wiped it on his chin to get some blood, before making his hand glide against the wall. "But you quickly became exhausted and you finally let the medication take it's course". The doctor turned Jack around so he was sitting, propped up against the wall.

Satisfied, the doctor went to walk out but stopped at the doorway, he looked back, "Oh I almost forgot", he stepped back over and sent a harsh kick to Jack torso, a sickening crack and a muffled scream followed afterwards. "You broke at least one rib when you were trying to escape...". The doctor knelt down next to Jack, drinking in the drug-muffled screams of pain, "and what lesson have we learnt today class huh? Hurt Diana again and you're dead you fucking schizo!".

"Anyways!", the doctor continued, in a much brighter note, as he walked back over to the door, "Enough storytime I think... g'night Jack!". The door closed behind the doctor and Jack heard the man lock it aswell. Finally alone, Jack relaxed as much as he could, he saw the gleeful manikin walk over, but ignored it, no caring anymore. A single tear ran down his imobile face, as he stared at the door the doctor had freely left through.

* * *

It was morning, time for the patients to be woken up. The red haired nurse had no idea why 'she' had to be the one to wake 'the Spicer kid' though. She'd only been working at the ward for a week, and she'd been there to witness the boy's infamous, unexplainable rages. To be completley honest, after seeing what he'd done to Diana, she was scared to be anywhere near the kid. But... Diana wasn't in any fit state to see him, so...

The nurse sighed as she all too soon found herself at the door. She knocked on the door, "Hey! Er..." damn! She'd forgotten the kid's first name! "Spicer! You need to get up now... breakfast time...". Out of habit, she laughed nervously to herself, unlocking and very cautiously opening the door. As she walked in, the smell of blood hit her and she gagged. There was blood splattered on several walls and a long trail of it along the floor as if something or someone had been carelessly dragged across the stone floor.

The trail led to Jack's knocked-over bed, against her better judgement she stepped over to see if he was still in his bed... no such luck! As she confusedly scanned the knocked-over bed, she could feel some kind of werid presence almost watching her. She looked over to the far wall, to see a figure covered in dried blood, so much that it was impossible to see it's face. It was sitting, lent against the wall, it's face tilted towards her. She screamed.

Jack had woken up in pain, his head, limbs and torso hurt, it was painful to breath, and impossible to open to open his eyes. He heard someone walking around in his room, his breath hitched, worrying it was the doctor, come back for more. Jack tilted his head towards the noise and heard a scream. He panicked wondering what was going on and tried desperately to open his eyes, not realising that a large amount of dried blood was preventing him from doing so.

He heard several pairs of running footsteps run to, and enter his room.

* * *

**15 minutes later:**

A warm, wet flannel was applied to his face, turning the solid blood particially back to liquid, so that it ran down his face and allowed him to be able to open his eyes freely once more. He looked up gratefully at the pretty young redhaired nurse from before, she avoided looking his way as she continued to wash away the blood away and disinfect his injuries. Strong arms of one of the many hospital guards held his own arms behind his back, he shifted uncomfortably.

Eventually a door opened and the doctor from yesterday walked through. "Ok, that'll be all, thank-you", he said to the nurse, who smiled coyly at him and walked out. Jack whined uncomfortably as the doctor stepped closer to examine his wounds. "Oh Jack-Jack-Jack!" The doctor sighed dramatically, "Why do you do this to yourself?".

Jack immediately grew angry, "I didn't do this to myself... You did!". Jack made a frustrated noise, attempting to twist himself away from the guard who held his arms behind his back.

"I'll just give him a mild seditive, the doctor said to the guard that stood behind Jack. Before Jack could do anything, he felt a needle poke through his skin. "No!" Jack screamed in rage, as the doctor took the now empty needle back out of Jack's skin. Jack struggled furiously, managing to free one arm from the tight grip, he got several hits in at the suprised doctor before the medication took effect.

Jack fell against the doctor and fell asleep. The guard who'd been holding the boy's arms behind his back pulled the sleeping boy off the doctor. "We can't let him near the other patients" the doctor said to the guard as he painfully held his (now) bloody nose, "He's too violent". The guard nodded in agreement and held Jack's sleeping form still, while the doctor bandaged Jack's injuries.

* * *

**3 days later:**

_Smile though your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking_

_When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by..._

The corridor was short, it contained 8 rooms, each with a single shutter window fixed onto each door (the shutter could only be opened from the outside).

_If you smile through and sorrow _

_smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through... for you_

Both ends of the corridor were cordened off by locked doors. The unfittingly happy music was said to be left playing to give the patients some form of entertainment. Though the main thing it seemed to do was block out the demented screams and yells of the other patients.

_Light up your face with gladness_

_hide every trace of sadness_

Jack's room, just like the others, held little light, there was no real window and the bulb was on a timer, it was night-time so it was turned off.

_Although a tear may be ever so near,_

_that's the time you must keep on trying_

_smile whats the use of crying_

Jack rocked steadily back and forth to the beat of the music, they'd put him in a straightjacket when he'd first entered the padded room, no one would take it off him yet, worrying what he might do to them, or himself when he was alone. As a result, they had to feed him by hand which he hadn't appreciated, and had got cuffed on the side of the head a few times for attempting to bite.

_You'll find that life is still worthwhile_

_if you just smile_

He was convinced they were putting something in his food, he'd never had this much trouble focusing on one subject before. He shrugged forgetting his previous thoughts that they were drugging his food. He listened quietly to the musical interval, still rocking back and forth. Slightly annoyed that the same CD had been replayed since he'd been there, he now knew all the words to songs he didn't even like, the sound of music, over the rainbow-

_That's the time you must keep on trying_

Jack listened as the lyrics started up again, and promptly forgot what he'd been thinking about. Still rocking, he shrugged to himself, not noticing the tears that dripped freely down his face. He knew he was getting out soon, he knew it- he just knew it.

_Smile whats the use of crying_

Far off at the other end of the ward, Joe walked casually around the ward, he hadn't seen Jack in 3 days. He wanted to know what had happened to him but hadn't seen which doctor or nurse had last been taking care of Jack. Even so, Joe wasn't going to give up that easily, he'd was gonna find out what happened to Jack, no matter what.

_You'll find that life is still worthwhile_

_If you just smile..._

__

_

* * *

_

weasleytwinlover: Your right it was creepy... and I think it's gonna get even creepier, lol.

Randomnessgirl1: Lol, what about Clay? Heh, why not, you could be the Heylin version of Kimiko... cool (though personally I'd wanna be the Heylin version of Omi, I don't wanna be that short... I just like water! Lol). ...Yes, Jack can FIGHT back... but I don't think it's doing his case of 'I'm not crazy' much good...

xxemo-princess666xx: Wow, you must be quite a fan of Xiaolin Showdown! For that I hereby give you a free hug-from-Jack voucher. Quickly! Hug him before he changes his mind! Lol!

Ritsuka189: Glad to be adding to your list of people to mentally butt-kick, lol. Heh, you were certainly right about the doctor's not appreciating Jack messing with the colour scheme... By the way... you need to untie Turner at some point... he's needed in a later chapter... Lol!.

Zayn noob: Lolz, yes crazy stuff does indeed keep happening to Jack, I can think of a few Xiaolin showdown Fangirl/boyz who wouldn't mind blowing the manikin up... Lol, dunno where I'd get the unicorn from though...

**The names of songs used within this chapter: **We are the champions, by Queen. Smile, by Nat King Cole.

**As always... please read and review...**

**Sayonara!**


	10. Letting go of pride

**Soz-Aclaimer: I aclaim! That I have spent too long not writing this story, soz everyone! Most servere amount of writer's block ave ever had, seriously, it took around two to three weeks to write this chapter... so hopefully it isn't too screwed up! Thankyou so much for the reviews, they really helped me focus on continuing and... (hears and sees readers impatiently tapping feet on floor and checking watches) ...(sigh) on with the story, lol...**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so (Sigh... seems to have gone on for slightly longer than that, lol!), the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors. **

* * *

**3 days later:**

_Smile though your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking_

_When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by..._

The corridor was short, it contained 8 rooms, each with a single shutter window fixed onto each door (the shutter could only be opened from the outside).

_If you smile through and sorrow _

_smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through... for you_

Both ends of the corridor were cordened off by locked doors. The unfittingly happy music was said to be left playing to give the patients some form of entertainment. Though the main thing it seemed to do was block out the demented screams and yells of the other patients.

_Light up your face with gladness_

_hide every trace of sadness_

Jack's room, just like the others, held little light, there was no real window and the bulb was on a timer, it was night-time so it was turned off.

_Although a tear may be ever so near,_

_that's the time you must keep on trying_

_smile whats the use of crying_

Jack rocked steadily back and forth to the beat of the music, they'd put him in a straightjacket when he'd first entered the padded room, no one would take it off him yet, worrying what he might do to them, or himself when he was alone. As a result, they had to feed him by hand which he hadn't appreciated, and had got cuffed on the side of the head a few times for attempting to bite.

_You'll find that life is still worthwhile_

_if you just smile_

He was convinced they were putting something in his food, he'd never had this much trouble focusing on one subject before. He shrugged forgetting his previous thoughts that they were drugging his food. He listened quietly to the musical interval, still rocking back and forth. Slightly annoyed that the same CD had been replayed since he'd been there, he now knew all the words to songs he didn't even like, the sound of music, over the rainbow-

_That's the time you must keep on trying_

Jack listened as the lyrics started up again, and promptly forgot what he'd been thinking about. Still rocking, he shrugged to himself, not noticing the tears that dripped freely down his face. He knew he was getting out soon, he knew it- he just knew it.

_Smile whats the use of crying_

Far off at the other end of the ward, Joe walked casually around the ward, he hadn't seen Jack in 3 days. He wanted to know what had happened to him but hadn't seen which doctor or nurse had last been taking care of Jack. Even so, Joe wasn't going to give up that easily, he'd was gonna find out what happened to Jack, no matter what.

_You'll find that life is still worthwhile_

_If you just smile..._

* * *

**2 Weeks later:**

Blank red eyes stared at the wall ahead as he slowly rocked back and forth. He was still wearing the straightjacket, the staff had taken it off him a few times, but it always meant him becoming overly violent with them, or self-destructive when he was on his own. Jack shrugged to himself, he didn't know why they were being so werid about the whole thing, how'd they expect him to act, he'd been caged in for the last 2 weeks, both mentally and physically.

And as for self-destruction part, there was nothing left for him to self-destruct with! The floor and walls were all cushiony, his bed was a floor mattress made from pure sponge and they were now also filling down his nails (fingers and toes). He had literally nothing sharp to harm himself with, unless his teeth were counted, and he'd have to be really desperate to want to use them to self-harm.

* * *

Joe sighed, he'd been looking for Jack for two weeks with no success... maybe they'd sent the boy home... althought it seemed very unlikely. That's when he noticed it, the corridor the staff had nicknamed 'the quiet space', it was basically a 'time out' where they placed patients who caused riots and trouble with staff and other patients.

Joe laughed despite himself, there was no way they'd put Jack in there, sure, the kid had been a bit overreactive before but... Joe frowned worriedly to himself and morphed through the heavily locked door that connected to 'the quiet space' corridor.

He glanced around at the eight idenitcal doors within the corridor, he didn't want to morph through those doors, some patients besides Jack could also see him, and he was respectful enough to not accidentally give a patient the shock of their lives.

"Jack, Jack?" Joe called out, no one answered... A sharp gust of wind ran through the corridors, pushing all of the shutters open, he looked through them all: empty, empty, occupied, ocupied, Jack, empty empt- wait! That was Jack! Joe leaned over to the door and looked through it.

* * *

Jack heard someone calling his name and the shutter on his door open, he shrank back from the light that suddenly invaded his room. A figure looked through the shutter, managing to block out most of the light. "Jack... Is that you?", Jack shifted slightly and gazed towards the figure... there was no way... it couldn't be... "Joe?".

Jack edged closer to the door, the straightjacket making it more hastle than it was worth to stand and walk over. Joe's face brightened as Jack drew closer, "Yeah it's me... heh heh... I thought they'd taken you somewhere else". Jack (for the first time in two weeks) grinned back, "Nope, still here". Joe morphed through the door, giving Jack a sideways glance as he sat against the wall opposite Jack, "Yeah I can see that!".

Jack snickered and continued the conversation, "So how's the hospital going?...".

They continued the conversation for some time, both making each other laugh with their ideas, jokes and tall tales.

* * *

Jack laughed, "Yeah Joe and-". Without warning, the blonde haired doctor walked in, like he had done so many other times. Jack froze in mid sentence., the doctor looked from Jack to the empty space he'd been 'talking' to and back again. "G'morning Jack, just here to run your daily check up... but I can see you're busy, I'll come back later ok?", without waiting for an answer, the doctor turned and walked back out.

Jack waited for the sound of the lock being reactived, before turning on Joe, "Great, just great! I have enough trouble to deal with, then YOU come in and screw everything up even more!". "Me!", a shocked Joe replied, "I-I'm your friend, I wanted to know what had happened to you!". "Yeah! Well you know now don't you!", Jack snapped.

Joe remained silent and Jack resumed his rocking posture.

"Just go away Joe!" Jack finally muttered, "They think am crazy enough without another figment of my imagination to add to their list...". It was Joe's turn to glare, "You know what Jack I'd just 'lurve' to 'go away!' But as you so pointedley mentioned 2 weeks ago, I can't leave, I'm stuck here. And for once I wanna make sure that you don't mess up the same fucking way I did!".

The silence stretched on for a while, before Jack finally spoke up. Curiousity overriding his previous bout of anger, he glanced back over to Joe and asked "...So... what happened?".

It was Joe's turn to look away at something else, he suddenly managed to look a lot older. "That nurse you saw talking to Diana after you got your stomach pumped... She's what happened!... Though at the end of it all... I suppose it wasn't entirely her fault, you see...

* * *

"So whatcha gonna do then huh, you gonna sing for us or what?", "Yeah Marley! Sing for us!".

A slightly younger Joe wore a school uniform, still lying on the floor he'd been tripped to, while watching the 3 older school boys standing over and mocking him.

"Don't worry about a thing" Two of the three boys began to sing as the oldest (Danny), rumaged through Joe's bag, throwing out anything of interest. "Cuz every lil thing's gonna be alright!".

Joe could only glare at the ground, Marley was a joke nickname he'd been given when he'd first started his new school because of his dreadlocks and basic Jamacian look he had about him. It had started out as a joke... and turned into this...

Joe continued to watch Danny rumage through his bag, hoping against hope that Danny wouldn't find... "Hey boys!" Danny suddenly shouted, putting his hands up to silence the two twats that were still singing very loudly and (in Joe's opinion) very badly. The two boys immdeiatley stopped singing and crowded around to see what their 'leader' had found.

Joe coughed slightly from the ground, before quickly getting up to make sure they hadn't found... they had. Held snuggly in Danny's firm grip was the one item that Joe held dear. Joe continued to stare, it was a rounded gold watch on a beautiful gold chain, it had been his mother's before she'd passed away...

"Yo Bobby!... Bob Marley wake up!" Joe blinked a few times before noticing Danny was standing infront of him, swinging the locket just out of his reach. "You like the locket?". Joe made to snatch it back, but Danny merely lifted out of Joe's reach, leering down at him, "You want your locket back so bad Marley, why don't you sing for it?".

Joe made no move to comply. Danny just shrugged, "Fine then" he said, getting ready to throw the locket into the nearby pond, his minions snickering, "Bye bye lock-".

"Wait!" Joe exclaimed, all eyes turned to face him and he began to mutter the song. The group of three laughed and Danny shook his head, putting on a exgerated Jamacian accent for effect, "Not like that mon, sing it properly an dance too, den who knows... ju might just get ja locket back in good conditon!".

Joe bit the inside of his lip to prevent insults from coming out, before quietly singing, "Don't worry...". "Louder!" Danny shouted, Joe glared but sang the song louder anyway. "...About a thing! Cuz every little thing's gonna be alright!"...

* * *

After finishing the song, Danny's minions and surrounding crowd (which even included a or two teacher) began to laugh and clap before dispersing to go to lessons, only Danny remained.

Joe glared slighty and walked towards him, "Alright Danny, you had your fun, just give me the watch... please!". Danny pretended to think (though Joe personally didn't think Danny had the ability) before shrugging, "Nope! I think I'd like to hear just one more song...".

Joe glared, embrassment, frustration and just pure hatred flooded his system. Danny merely shrugged, "What's wrong ya worthless lil' shit... run outta songs have you Marley?". Joe's vision became blinkered, all he saw was Danny and the watch, Joe let out a yell, throwing a well aimed fist towards Danny's face before shoving the older boy with all of his might. Danny seemed to almost lift off the ground, stopping only when he hit the black metal fence that ran the perimeter of the school.

Joe took a few seconds to regain his composure... he'd never realised he was so physically strong but... He straightened up and glanced coolly over to the frozen Danny, "Yeah, an I've more than that, so you'd better give that watch back!". Danny remained standing in a very odd position and Joe's expression turned to one of confusion.

He walked over to Danny, snatching back his prized possession and eyeing the imobile boy, his confusion turned to horror as he realised why Danny wasn't moving... two points of the metal fence poles could be seen, poking through Danny's chest, a frozen look of suprise and slight horror was forever stuck on Danny's face, only then did Joe realise what he'd done... Danny was dead- and he was a murderer.

* * *

Teachers had found out, Joe was taken away by police and sent to a juvenille detention centre before being taken to court. His dad had pleaded with the court, saying it had been down to emotional stress, the death of his mother and such. The court had seen fit to send Joe to a mental insitute, the judge taking the dad's words as a claim of insanity.

* * *

Joe sat on his bed, in a room quite similar to Jack's usual room, a faint ticking could be heard, it was the sound of the watch. Joe idly flicked it open and closed. It was late, but he wasn't tired yet, the room was hopelessly blank and uninspiring, but at least being admitted as criminally insane rather than plain mentally disturbed had it's advantages.

They didn't think it likely that he'd harm himself when alone or destoy things, so he'd been allowed to bring in his watch for company at least. Finally he grew tired and went to sleep.

8:30 am, Joe woke up to a sour looking lady in her late twenties/early thirties opening the door. "Get up Joe", she muttered, leaving the door wide open and watching boredly as a slightly self-concious Joe got dressed. Unlike in Jack's era, there were few acts (laws) concerning mental hospitals and the privacy and well being of patients.

As a result, nothing was really kept behind closed doors, if the patients were spied on, force fed or moderatly harmed by staff, there wasn't really much anyone could or would do about it.

The sour woman (Linda was her name), gave an annoyed sigh as Joe seemed to take such a long time to get dressed. Just as Joe put on a clean white t-shirt, she grabbed his arm and basically dragged him out of the room. He quietly followed after her, 5 months had taught him not to fight back, it didn't seem worth it anymore. He was dropped off at the cafeteria and immediately walked over to where his friends sat, unlike Jack, he'd managed to make an abundense (well... 3 friends).

"Hey Rio, Matt, Kevin", they all answered good morning to him, except for Kevin who told him to 'fuck off' instead. Everyone just laughed, Kevin actually had tourettes but hadn't been diagnosed with it (tourettes wasn't as well known of then as it is in Jack's era)... The psychiatrist had labelled Kevin as having uncontrollable anger issues. Pretty much everyone in the hospital was used to his shout-outs by now.

They were all about eleven or twelve, Matt had severe anxiety and stuttered through most of his sentences, it was quite funny that he and Kevin were actually best friends, one extremely loud and the other hardly ever saying a word.

"Hey Joe, how'd that psychiatrist thing go yesterday?", asked Rio. "Yeah... went as well as could be expected... so not good at all really...", Joe answered, laughing slightly. Rio wasn't actually the boy's real name, it was where he was supposed to be from, he'd been there longer than anyone else... apparently none of of the staff had been able to pronounce his real name, so he'd become known as Rio, he thankfully didn't seem to mind too much.

They joked around a while, eating breakfast and playing great escape, a game of pretend where they'd act like the charcters from the film (Rio had never actually seen the film but knew the general gist of it from the 3 others) and talk about tunneling out and such... they never actually acted on their ideas but it was fun all the same. Eventually they were sent to their different classes Rio and Joe both going to English first

* * *

"Rio, could you read page 45 please?", the mousy haired male teacher asked from his cushy chair.

The room contained about 15 kids, who all were all sat on gray plastic chairs within the room, 2 or 3 helpers walked around the room, ready for any outbursts that may occur. "No", Rio answered in honesty. The teacher raised an eyebrow, "Rio read the the page or you'll be reported to the psychiatrist's office".

Rio stared down at the page, it had been difficult enough learning to speak English but reading it? Seriously how did people manage to read this stuff when the letters jumped about so much. "Rio...", the teacher said warningly. Rio continued to stare at the words, wishing they'd just stay in one position. Joe glanced at Rio's worried face and whispered, "The two men ran, not looking back...". Rio gave a half smile of thanks to Joe and repeated what Joe said.

* * *

**The next day, around 8:00am:**

Joe sat in his room, waiting for Linda to come and collect him, today the 'well behaved' patients (meaning him and 2 of his friends) were going out on a coach trip, he wouldn't miss it for the world. Finally Linda opened the door and he was ushered into the cafeteria where they were taking the register, making sure everyone was there before the trip started. He sat down next to Matt, calling out "Yes sir!", when his name was called, the register finished and he realised Rio's name hadn't been called out.

He turned and whispered to Matt, "Hey why didn't they call Rio's name out?". "He-e's not he-here a-any-m-more J-joe, Matt stuttered. Joe pulled a face, "You mean they sent him back home... seriously?". Matt glanced at the ground, "N-n-no, th-they found him i-in-in his r-room...h-h-he...he... Joe didn't usually lose his patience with Matt, but this was important, "Matt! What happened!", Joe hissed.

Matt gave Joe an almost appologetic look and drew and imaginary line across one of his wrists with his finger. Joe's eys widened, it was his turn to stutter, "B-but he's okay isn't he... I-I mean he's still alive yeah?". Matt's head hung, "N-no Joe... -I-I'm s-sorry". Linda was walking past their table and Joe glanced at her, "Did you know about this?", Joe asked her, Linda boredly glanced over her clipboard at him, "Know about what?". "Know about him- Rio... he's dead".

"Joe, this is a mental institute, some people 'do' commit suicide within these wards...". Joe stared at her, "He was my best friend... why didn't you tell me!". Linda sighed, "look, he's dead now, we need to move on and stop focusing on the past, the coach'll be here soon...". Joe glared and slowly stood up, "Focus on the past? Focus on the fucking past?".

"There is no need for that kind of language Joe!", Linda calmly stated. "Piss off!", Joe shouted at her, even Matt looked round in shock at Joe. "Alright! That's it!" Linda exclaimed, she looked to 2 of the nearby helper-guards, "Take him back to his room, we can't take him on the trip if he's going to act like this".

Anger, remorse (at his best friend's death), frustration and hatred filled Joe's mind as the helpers grabbed either of his arms and pulled him to the doors of the cafeteria. "NO!" Joe suddenly shouted at Linda as he was pulled away, "Fuck you! No! No! Fuck you! No! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!". The doors swang shut behind Joe and the helpers, muffling Joe's shouts. Linda shrugged to herself and scribbled out Joe's name on the register list.

* * *

**2 days later:**

Joe sat on his bed, arms hugging his knees to his chest as he glared out to the small barred window he was apparently 'lucky to have'. He'd spent the last few days alone in there, his food shoved through a hole at the bottom of the door, an unsanitary bed pan like mobile toilet in the left handside of his room.

It wasn't the worst puishment by far he could have received for speaking out of turn, and at least it gave him time to slightly get over the death of Rio. Somehow, the worst part of Rio's death, was just the simple knowledge that he was never going to see, talk or joke with him ever again, not in this lifetime anyway...

He heard the door open and looked up, it was Linda, "Goodmorning Joe", she said, "Have you calmed down enough to meet with the other patients now?". Joe gave out a shallow breath and nodded. "Good, good", she remarked, "And don't worry Joe, you'll soon forget old whats-his-name even existed". Joe paused as he got up to follow her out of the room, "Rio". Linda looked back at him, "What?". "His was Rio...", Joe repeated slowly.

Linda smiled slightly, "Of course it was, but you'll make new friends, I promise...", she began to hum a tune as she waited for him to follow her out of the door.

Joe's anger and hatred grew, she didn't care, she didn't care about any of them, it was only then he realised the what song she had began to hum was (three little birds: don't worry about a thing). Memories of his school days, all the times he was picked on resurfaced and mocked him with that song... he saw red and attacked.

Within seconds he'd lost, his blind rage getting him nowhere fast, as Linda had him easily pinned against the wall. She just sighed, repeating his name, saying she'd thought he was past 'all that', as she jabbed him in the arm with an injection. He merely glared and spat at her, she gave him an unimpressed look, and re-filled the injection getting ready to put it in the other arm. Joe immediately lost his rage and paled slightly, "You're not supposed to give me that much...". She shrugged, "Then apologise!". Joe glared "Never... Fuck you! Fuck you!".

Linda merely shrugged, that's the way it's gotta be then...", with that she jabbed him in the other arm and sat him down on his bed. "I'll see you later Joe".

He glared after as she left the room, waiting until he heard the door click before lying down and resting his head on the pillow. He reached under the mattress and grabbed the round, gold watch, flicking it open and watching the second hand tick. Suddenly the room began to swirl and he began to feel incredibly sick, his head was pounding, his stomach made girgling sounds and he felt very tired. He shouldn't feel like this after a sedative, he hadn't before, prehaps he should call for help... and have that smug Linda-no he could take this sickness, because his pride would allow him to stoop so low.

Eventually, his sickness won and his ever shallowing pride allowed him to call for help... but he was so tired... he'd just have a small sleep and then he'd call... just a small nap and then he'd call for help... the hand holding the watch fell limply on the bed, the watch rolling off the bed and hitting the floor.

* * *

**Hours later:**

"Joe!", Linda called to the sleeping boy, "Wake up Joe", She grabbed his shoulder to shake him and stopped, he was freezing cold. She hesitantley rolled him over and stared at how lifeless he truly looked.

She spent the next 5 minutes trying to revive him but it was too late. She covered her mouth and stared, horiffied at the dead body infront of her, there was no way she could fake it as a suicide, the injections could only be given by staff, they would be near impossible to collect. Giving a patient an overdose... she'd lose more than her job for this. Suddenly, inspiration struck her, patients were sometimes buried here, an extra body wouldn't be noticed among the crowd. And since it was night time, there'd be less staff around to bare witness, she'd make it look like an escape, no one would ever know.

* * *

**In the morning:**

"Help!", Linda shouted, running into the staff room, "Joe, he's not in his room, the door was open... I think he escaped!". Staff members got up and followed her to the empty room, they couldn't find him either, they quickly filled out of the room, to look for him. Linda was about to do the same, when she noticed the gold watch left on the floor, anyone who knew Joe knew that he'd never leave without it. She grabbed it, the glass face was slightly cracked and the watch itself had for some reason stopped working.

She shrugged, snapped it shut and put it into her pocket before leaving the room to 'help' the others search for Joe. She left the door unlocked, not noticing the dreadlocked, dark eyed figure glaring at her, through the shadows of the corner of the room.

* * *

**Back to 'the quiet room':**

Jack sat in silence at the end of the story, "But I don't get it, how can it be partly your fault?". Joe shrugged, 'Keeping my pride so much, it cost me my life". Jack shot back a confused look, "Everyone has pride, and besides, you were defending Rio's memory...".

Joe glanced back, "...and now I'm a mere memory too. You see, once you come here, you're locked in... You're not a kid anymore, you're a document... All your choices, decisions and rights now belong to the government who run this place. So at the end of the day, when the choice between pride and life comes up, which do you think is best?".

At that precise moment Jack heard the door being unlocked, he turned his head to see the doctor edge in, brandishing a needle, and uttering kind words, trying to get Jack to hold still. Joe had vanished and Jack was tense but he remembered Joe's words, he sat there and allowed the doctor to give the injection, for the first time in 2 weeks, he didn't fight back.

* * *

**One week later:**

"You have 10 minutes, alright?" Diana calmly repeated, as Jack walked into the bathroom. He'd been released from the 'quiet room' two days ago, Diana had returned, saying that she wasn't going to give up on him, despite the previous setback (Joe said that it was a good thing, but Jack wasn't too sure).

He walked past the toilets and went to the sink, untucking his shirt from his trousers and looked at the two salvaged items he'd snuck out from under his matress and hid inside his slightly rolled-up, tucked shirt, he was suprised they hadn't been found by staff yet.

His salvaged items consisted of a pencil sharpener and pencil (chapter 8)... he had a little time. He played with the pencil, attempting to write his name on one of the white walls. The point on the pencil crumpled almost instantaneously, preventing him from being able to write anything, his brow furrowed, well that was the most useless pencil ever!

He boredly turned it over in his hand and read the gold words 'eyeliner', imprinted on the side of the black pencil. Slight annoyance filled him but he shrugged it off, deciding to see how useful it actually was. He got closer to the mirror (planning to do a zombie kind of look), he ran the pencil under his right eye and back again, smiled and nodded at his own handy work before doing the left eye.

He ran the pencil along under his left eye and back-. "Jack! Your 10 minutes are nearly up, you're gonna be late!". Jack jumped as he heard her voice, the hand holding the pencil accidently running halfway down his cheek.

"Alright... thank-you!" He shouted back, he turned to look at the failed zombie look, and actually liked what he saw. After all, in the stories, the 'male' red indians had used warpaint to fight and protect themselves in battle. And that was just it... he 'was' in a battle and 'this' would be his warpaint, he hid the pencil and sharpener under the sink, in a small hole in the wall he'd previously found.

Before leaving, he turned to the mirror, pulling a face at himself and silently mimicing an red indian battle cry before going out to meet with Diana.

* * *

**Notes: **Incase anyone was wondering, Rio had undiagnosed dyslexia, and the song that Joe hated: Three little birds-Bob Marley.

**As always, here the answers to reviewers (shrugs) I like answering to them... if anyone's actually still reading this fic...lol.**

**xxemo-princess666xx:** Lol, thanks for the review... I think Jack's becoming hug-addicted!

**Kitsunesecret:** Glad you liked the song... cuz I did too, lol.

**Kisshufan4ever:** Thanks for the review(s), ya know your story's doing ok when one of the readers has to stay up late to read the end, hope you liked this chapter as much as the others, lol.

**turquoiseebonyfox:** ...who's Johnny?...

**Primeval Eidolon Scar:** Lol, thanks for the review and hope you like'd the chapter.

**f:** Yes poor Jack... and poor Joe too really...

**Zarth-Krayt:** Your waiting is over, lol.

**Ritasuka189:** Lol, if you're still reading this, yes I will be needing the Turnerr clone at some point, lol. The doctor should however be surplus to requirement by the end of the next chapter, so... enjoy! Lol.

**Zayn Noob:** ...Elfen Lied? Ja, Jack gained his semblance of hope like you wished... I'm not too sure if a cookie would help thou- (Jack runs by, snatches cookie and laughs excitedly) ...oh... apparently the cookie did help, lol.

**Randomnessgirl1:** Lol, he became a doctor because he keeps a straight face in sane company, at the end of the day everyone has something to hide, lol. So when you say fire's your element do you mean in terms of horoscopes or...


	11. Mini chapter: Dark and light

**This is a chapter based around the same timeline as chapter one (so basically a flash forward), the actual chapter is still being worked on so I figured I'd spend a few hours working on this instead, it has not been grammar checked, spelling checked or in anyother way re-checked so if you're wondering about the bad speeeling ann graamur mistakes... the no re-checking thing would be why, lol.**

**Anyways, soz for taking do long but here it is... an update...yay! (empty silence and crickets chirp)... Seriously is anyone still readin this? **

**Lol.**

* * *

Jack lay on his bed enjoying the surrounding darkness that the night provided, he glanced to his bedside table, a small digital clock blared the numbers 3:40 in green at his, eerily cutting through the blackness of the room. It was that late already? Jack shrugged to himself, and lay his head back on the pillow so he could stare up at the ceiling somemore. He never really knew why he liked staying up late so much, he figured it was for the darkness. It was strange really, despite the fact that his 'dellusions' generally got worse when it was dark and silent... he still found it peaceful, the only time he could really just relax and feel like himself without being called a freak, psycho or creep by the judging eye of society.

Jack let his mind wonder- ignoring his body's need for sleep- what tactic would he use during the next xiaolin showdown? Those xiaolin losers had basically demolished his entire robot army, he figured it would take a good few weeks before all of them were fully prepared and operational, he just hoped there weren't going to be any shen gong wu revealing themselves until then. He switched on his mp3 and the song 'hate me today' began to play.

Jack shrugged to himself- maybe he should get some sleep... but he didn't want to. Tomorrow was school and he hated that, he always found it slightly strange how you could be sit a class with 30 other kids and yet still feel more lonely than if you just spent the entire time home alone instead. He was also put off by the fact that tomorrow was double maths meaning that the little gits from primary school (now big gits in high school) would spend the morning trying to wind him up. Jack tossed on the bed vaguely thinking about ditching school tomorrow, it wasn't like he was really learning anything there anyway...

The song 'hate me today' had begun again and was half way through when Jack realised he hadn't set his mp3 to replay. He glanced curiously at the device in his hand and pressed the pause button so the device would light up and show him why it was playing repeats. The song didn't pause and mp3 didn't light up, Jack shrugged and resigned himself to the fact that pause button was broken. He pressed stop but the music didn't stop, great! the whole hardware of it was broken!. Jack took the earphone off and settled dow to sleep, before realising that he could still hear the music play.

Jack grabbed the mp3 and took off the back so he could get to the battery- but there was none, Jack's eyes widened- he took calming breaths assigning him self to the fact that it was one of his schizophrenic delu-

Tick tock, tick tock- where was that coming from, he didn't have an anolog clock, tick-tock tick-tock-tick-tockticktockticktockticktock! The clock noise got faster and faster and Jack began to unconciously do the one thing that always made everything a whole lot worse-he panicked.

"WHO-WHO ARE YOU!", Jack shouted, manging to sound more confident that he actually felt, "SHOW YER SELF YOU FUCKING COWARD-YOU THINK AM AFRAID? COME ON! SHOW YER". - Jack stopped as he heard something, someone was knocking- no, pounding on the front door. Jack gulped and clutched the covers surrounding him, he wasn't going to answer no way-

The pounding got louder and louder, Jack wished Wuya was still there (she'd sided with chase once again), she would be able to tell him if there really was someone upstairs or he was just 'dreaming'. Jack gave an involuntary squeak of fright as the front door sounded like it had been knocked down, almost immediately after he heard his bedroom door being forcefully rattled and shook- proof enough that it was a delusion (there was no way someone from the front door could get to his bedroom door so fast).

Even so... Jack glanced nervously back to the door and shot under the bed as he heard the door being shaken again. He pulled the covers over his head and took a battery (he always kept at least one for emergencies like these) out of his trouser pocket and put it into the mp3.

* * *

He finally fell asleep at 5:30 in the morning- entire body hidden under the bed and mass of covers he'd pulled under the bed with him. Music blaring out of the earphones sso loudly, it would be a truly suprsing event if he didn't wake up at least parcially deaf.

* * *

Jack woke to see Adria looking under the bed at him, "rough night huh?", she asked. His mp3 had already died out so he heard her and nodded, "heh yeah...".

"Wanna skip school today?". Jack's eyes widened, she was usually the one telling him to not skip school, he shrugged and grinned, "sure, why not...". There was a slight pause before Adria asked "video games?". Jack smirked, the fear of last night almost instantly forgotten "video games!" he repeated before racing her to the living where the games were.

He grinned to himself, running as he realised something- maybe it wasn't the sunlight that he feared but the disaproving society that came along with it. Either way, Adria was here now and whether fake or real, in a world that makes no sense, a dependable friend made all the difference. ...Maybe there were some up-sides to schizophrenia afterall...

But enough of that, he had a video game to win...

* * *

**Anyways, as said earlier this was just a mini chap to get me back onto the story SCHIZOPHRENIA- hopefully I'll complete an 'actual' chapter sooner rather than later... This chap just loosey fit in with the time scale of chapter 1 incase anyone was wondering...**

**Thanks to all reviewers of SCHIZOPHRENIA who I'll get back to in the 'actual' chapter when it's finally finished- soz it took so lomg to get back to this story, and special thanks to kisshufan4ever who basically reviewed the same last chapt 3 times-gotta admire that kinda commitment lol.**

**As always- plz read and review!**


	12. Departure

**I have been trying to write this exact chapter for ages so hopefully everyone likes it, thanks for all the reviews, they really helped me keep writing this. Enjoy! ...Or not, lol...**

_'This'= Jack's thoughts._

**_Note:_ For the next chapter or so (Sigh... seems to have gone on for slightly longer than that, lol!), the story SCHIZOPHRENIA is being taken back a few years to better explain the background behind the first, and possible further chapters.**

_**Side note: I've stayed awake till 5:30 to finish this , so you'd better enjoy or else I'll... (Snore!)...**_

_**If anyone's wondering, I personally think the song 'Heaven's not enough' goes great with the end third of this chap, but thats probably only if you tend to like listening and readin... (Snore!)...**_

**Warning: Many bad spelling and grammar errors. **

* * *

He ran the pencil along under his left eye and back-. "Jack! Your 10 minutes are nearly up, you're gonna be late!". Jack jumped as he heard her voice, the hand holding the pencil accidently running halfway down his cheek.

"Alright... thank-you!" He shouted back, he turned to look at the failed zombie look, and actually liked what he saw. After all, in the stories, the 'male' red indians had used warpaint to fight and protect themselves in battle. And that was just it... he 'was' in a battle and 'this' would be his warpaint, he hid the pencil and sharpener under the sink, in a small hole in the wall he'd previously found.

Before leaving, he turned to the mirror, pulling a face at himself and silently mimicing an red indian battle cry before going out to meet with Diana.

* * *

Both Joe and Diana had given Jack confused and somewhat bewildered looks when they'd first seen his 'war paint'. Diana, unlike Joe, never asked why, deciding to wait until his appointment with the psychiatrist to find why Jack had choosen to start wearing makeup.

* * *

**At the psychiatrist's office:**

"You've been in a lot of trouble as of late I see Jack", the psychiatrist said as he flicked through a file which Jack guessed was his own. "I take it that at one point you even hit out at your supervisor- Diana. Would you be able to tell me why you felt the need to do so?". Jack bit his lip, as the psychiatrist and Diana loomed over him, trying to think of a better reason than _'that crazy bitch was trying to drug me'_. Jack shrugged, "I guess everything was just getting worse, all my thoughts seemed to attack each other, I just wasn't coping well...".

Psychiatrist seemed suprised, "You admitt that your schizophrenic thoughts may have led you to act unpredictably towards Diana?". "...Yes", Jack bregrudingly answered. Diana began to smile brightly as the psychiatrist continued, "This is good progress Jack, admitting your problem is the very first step to learning to manage it".

The psychiatrist took a deep breath in, "Now I have one more thing to ask you Jack, as Diana has pointed out, you have begun to wear eye makeup. I was wondering if you would tell me why you have taken it upon yourself to start applying such a thing?".

Jack was quiet for a moment, Joe seemed to understand what he meant when he'd called it war paint, but would they?...Probably not...

Jack racked his brain for a more plausable excuse, but none sprang to mind. "I guess I sometimes I still feel scared... the 'makeup' (Jack sneered slightly at the word) is kinda like protection, it helps me feel safe... I don't know why though...".

The psychiatrist nodded, "Thankyou for being honest with me... I guess you wouldn't tell me where you're getting this makeup from?". Jack smiled slightly and shook his head. Jack and the psychiatrist continued to talk for a while after, until Jack was finally dismissed, told to go to his room and wait for Diana to collect him for dinner.

Jack stepped out of the psychiatrist's office, and walked down the empty corridor, smiling slightly when Joe appeared, walking by his side. Jack told Joe how the meeting had gone.

"That's great!", Joe exclaimed, as they continued the walk to Jack's room, "Now the only thing left to do is apologise". Jack gave Joe a strange look, "What did I do to you?". Joe laughed slightly, "No not to me!... To Diana...". "WHAT!" Jack half shouted as they turned a corner.

Joe held his hands up, "Hey, keep your voice down- and yes, you do need to apologise to her". Jack stood still in the middle of the corridor, giving Joe a 'and-they-say-I'm-'crazy' look. Joe continued to walk, prompting Jack to follow him, "Diana keeps notes on you right? She hands them into her supervisors, if you apologise she's bound to tell her supervisors, and you'll be one step closer to being let out of this place".

Jack gave a defeated sigh as he walked up to and stood by his open door (the doors were only usually locked at 'curfew'), "Yeah, I guess... thanks Joe". Joe grinned as Jack headed off into his room, "No worries Jack, I'll see ya later yeah?".

"Later?", Jack questioned, he turned to look at Joe (no one was there) and sighed, he wished he could just disappear like that.

* * *

**Later that day:**

"Did you apologise?". Jack made a face and continued to walk, Joe at his left, Diana at his right. Joe continued to try to persuade him, "Jack come on you're gonna have to... do you really wanna stay here forever?".

Knowing Joe had a point, Jack sighed and walked slightly closer to Diana as they entered the cafeteria, "Hey Diana... I'm sorry". Diana's suprised face turned his way, "What for?".

"For hurting you, I shouldn't have... I'm just really sorry...". Diana smiled, "I'm glad you apologised, why don't you line up to get your food, I'll go find you a table".

Jack watched her until she was a safe distance away before turning to Joe, "I'm 'not' sorry...". Joe just laughed and followed Jack to the cafeteria que.

* * *

**Around four to five months later:**

Around four to five months had passed now, thanks to Joe's hints, both the psychiatrist and Diana had said that he was well on the way to recovery, Jack was even convinced he'd heard one or two of the staff talking about his 'release date'.

Jack collected some food from the canteen and sat on a table with a group of kids he'd kinda made friends with (kinda in the sense that few actually noticed he was there anyway, so he was tolerated to sit at their table). Jack wasn't really all too bothered that they basically ignored him, even being tolerated/ignored was a step up from what he'd had in school.

Jack glanced around the table as he munched his food, all in all there were about 4 others, two in deep (if not slightly argumentative) conversation over... something... Another was repeatly stabbing his food with his plastic fork and muttering.

Jack glanced to either side of himself, to his right stood Joe (it would have looked kinda strange if he'd gotten a chair for 'a figment of his imagination'). To his left sat the rigid blonde boy that Jack met a while ago, (chapter 4) who'd screamed like hell when Jack had tried to 'borrow' a crayon.

The blonde haired boy was called Noah and Jack probably enjoyed his company the most, he wasn't much of a talker but on the other hand, he didn't seem to mind (or at least care about) Jack talking non-stop to him.

Joe said that it was important Jack was seen being social with the other patients, so that the staff could see how well he would cope on the outside.

Jack figured it made sense, even though it seemed a bit of a lost cause, as only the 'not so awake' patients would generally tolerate being around him. Unknowing that he was being watched closely by staff, Jack talked 'nonsense' with Noah, "I'm kinda bored of toast for breakfast ya know? It's pity they don't a full bacon/eggs breakfast... you think maybe if I asked? There again maybe not, I saw Oliver Twist and I don't wanna end up like- hey have you ever seen Oliver Twist?", Noah shrugged his shoulder and Jack went off into a long explation of what it was about.

* * *

Jack walked out the cafeteria with Noah, holding the boy's shoulder to keep him walking, (Noah was near catatonic at times and usually wouldn't move at all unless someone persuaded him) anywhere else Jack would have felt werid constanly holding another by the shoulder, but this place had helped him to re-evaluate his take on werid.

"Hey Jack, could I have a moment?" Diana asked, appearing out of nowhere and putting her hand on Jack's shoulder. Jack looked from her to Noah with a 'what-about-him' look. Diana nodded and another staff member went in place of Jack to guide Noah back to his room.

"Bye Noah", Jack called after him- Noah didn't respond so Jack called slightly louder, "Bye!". "Bye", came Noah's monotoneous reply, Jack wasn't too sure if Noah was replying or just repeating, but was happy all the same that Noah had heard him.

Jack turned to Diana, "So what did you want to talk about?".

* * *

**In an empty therapy room:**

Diana sat in a red armchair in the middle of the over-furnished room, while Jack sat on a green bean bag, far enough away from her to watch her every move but close enough for it not to look a bit werid-(even though he hadn't been physically hurt by any staff since his 'quiet room' incident, he was still kinda wary of them being too close).

"Jack", Diana murmered to get his attention before continuing, "Jack, I called you in here to chat about your departure from this institution back to your parent's home, we believe you're ready for it".

"Really?", asked a suddenly interested Jack, finding it difficult to keep a (wary but excited nontheless) smile off his face. Diana nodded and continued, "We've talked about it and you really do seem to be coping a lot better with everything-you're socialising more and, as it's nearly time for your age group to start attending high school, we believe it would be the perfect time to intergrate you back into mainstream society".

Diana shifted in her seat slightly and shuffled some paperwork before continuing,"Now, we've already phoned up your parents, their willing to collect you within 2 days, that should hopefully give you time to tie up any loose ends you have within this institution and get ready for going home... and don't worry, we're not going to throw you in at the deep end, we've organised a special supervisor to take care of you for the first year of your new school alright?".

Jack wasn't too sure he was happy about that last supervisor part, but vigourously nodded his head anyway, thanking Diana, the 'chat' continued on for a further ten minutes before he was sent out to go back to his room and sleep.

* * *

Jack stepped into his room, waited until he heard the locks on his door click, and smirked to himself, he was finally going home! It was the best feeling in the world, he was finally gonna be able to control his own life, do what he wanted when he wanted. Jack continued to think excitedly to himself as he sat down on the edge of his bed and grinned.

"Good news huh?", said a very appathetic voice, Jack jumped slightly and turned to see Joe sitting ridgidly on the other side of the bed. "Yeah!", Jack replied, too happy to notice Joe's mood, "Leaving in just two days... isn't that great! Oh I can't wait to get back! Let's see, first I'll eat as much ice cream as I possibly can... then I'll play all my old video games... then admittedly I'll probably chuck up, but that'll just mean I can just eat some more and...".

Joe laid his back on the bed and turned his head to the side, eyeing Jack with a look of (almost) slight annoyance as Jack continued to blab on about what he'd do when he 'finally' got back 'home'. "Yeah...", Joe unenthusiastically muttered, loud enough for Jack to hear, "Awesome...".

Jack paused in mid-sentence, "You okay Joe?", Joe opened his mouth looking as if he was about to say something, but closed it again. "Fine and dandy!", Came his purposefully fake reply, "...Enjoy your ice cream(!)". Without a further word from either of them, Joe got up and 'walked through' the door, leaving a very confused Jack alone to his thoughts.

* * *

**The next day:**

As usual Jack got up, got dressed (into an outfit exactly like the one he'd worn to bed- white short sleeve shirt and trousers), was taken to the cafeteria by Diana, ate breakfast with the other 4, and a very standoffish Joe. Guided Noah to their first lesson (maths), did the second lesson (english), then went to lunch to basically do the same as he had done at breakfast.

However, it was only at lunch that Joe actually bothered to talk to Jack again since last night.

Jack sat, blabbing on about how he was going to 'finally' leave, to a barely responsive Noah that Jack wasn't even sure truly heard all he was saying.

"Oh sure! Just rub it in! You're going home and he's not, woo hoo!", Joe finally said, glaring slightly as he interrupted Jack. Jack quickly glanced around the table and cafeteria to make sure no one was watching, before returning the glare and answering in a hushed yell, "Seriously! What is up with you? You spend all this time telling and helping me to get out of here, and then all the sudden you're getting angry with me cuz all your 'helpful hints' finally paid off- Why are you being like this?".

Joe sighed angrily, not having to lower his yell since no one else seemed to hear him anyway, "Because YOU get to leave!". Jack shot back a confused look. Joe continued, "I've been here a long time- around 30 years ... I was about 11 when I came here, that means I'm at least 41, 42, 43?. ...Look, you get to go on with your life, go to school, make friends, maybe even have a family- who knows! But me, I'm immortal, I don't age, I don't change and I can't leave... And once you leave, maybe no one will see me- I'll be on my own again! Don't you see? Nothing ever changes, not for me... it's always the same! ALWAYS!...".

Jack looked to Joe, "You could always come with me...". Joe laughed hoarsley, tears almost seeming to form at the sides of eyes, "Didn't you hear me before?", his form slowly began to fade, "I... can't...".

* * *

Jack didn't see Joe for the next two lessons (back to back winding down lessons- painting, drawing, music, e.t.c), and figured he might not for the rest of the day at this rate.

Time was running out before he would be leaving, Jack had literally just come up with a plan that would either help both him and Joe or just fall flat on it's face. Either way, he didn't have much time left, he would have to work fast...

It was dinnertime, Jack munched his potato and bacon as he talked random topics with Noah, his eyes flickered occasionally to the clock and back- most all staff went on their lunchbreak at 7:15, but the patient's dinners finished at 7:25... this was going to be a real close cut...

Jack's eyes flickered back to the clock, 7:10... perfect... Jack got up, made his excuses to Noah and walked over to Diana, "Can I got to the toilet?". Diana glanced at him, "Yeah sure, I'll take y-". "No Di-", Jack began and then changed his tone, "I wanna go by myself, I'm leaving tomorrow so...". Diana thought it over and nodded slowly, Jack smiled his thanks and walked briskly out the cafeteria doors, going the exact opposite way to the toilets.

* * *

Finally (after what he hoped was just 5 minutes) he'd made it to the main nurse's office, the door had been left wide open, he glanced feverishly around for any witnesses before sneaking into the room.

Joe had told him about this place and where the hidden item was kept (3rd draw to the left)- as if by pure luck the draw was open. It was quite big and difficult to open, Jack shoved his hand into it, nothing, papers, papers and more papers- that draw was ridiculously deep though, it could be at the bottom...

So saying he pushed his arm as far into the draw as the immobile thing would allow- his hand closed on something round with a metallic feel to it- "Hey do you think I should do overtime, I mean it's no real rise in wages but...". Jack's eyes widened, he could hear two nurses talking outside the room he was in... If they found him in here he was done for, he tried to pull his arm out of the draw, it wouldn't budge! The draw had somehow clamped down on his arm and he was now stuck!

He glanced from the door to his arm and back again, what was he going to do? He continued to struggle, heart pounding, the door began to slowly open as the nurses continued to chat. Pure adrenaline shooting through his system, Jack, with a much more frantic (and lucky) pull was free. Wasting no time on celebrating his freed arm, Jack quickly hid under the nearby desk. He watched, not even daring to breathe, as the two pairs of sensibles shoes walked around the room, constantly stopping and starting as they gathered different papers and such (shaving more and more time off of what little time he actually had left).

Finally they went and he was glad to see the door was still left open, taking another careful glance around, he darted back to cafeteria, trying to make as little noise as possible on the floorboards.

He finally got to the cafeteria- but it was locked and empty, damn! How long had he been away? He ran towards the 'dorm' area where he saw Diana waiting.

Not having time to really look at it- he quickly fit the round metal item he still held, between the elastic of his white trousers and his bareskin (a good substitute for pockets as long as the object doesn't accidentally lose it's footing and fall out the leg end...). "Hey Diana", Jack greeted, "Sorry I'm late, I just...".

"No, no, that's fine Jack", Diana replied, seeming more impatient than bothered that he taken so long, "Just step inside... Great, goodnight Jack!". Jack didn't really get a chance to respond before his door was closed and locked, he shrugged to himself and sat down on his bed, pulling out the metal object to get a better look...

No joke... This was really it! Silver, slightly cracked glass on the face, mysteriously no longer working... this was it, it was Joe's watch!

So Joe really was real?... Jack couldn't believe it! That meant maybe not everything was a lie... didn't it? Jack couldn't wait to tell Joe but unfortunately for him, he would have to wait as Joe didn't choose to visit Jack's room that night.

* * *

**The next morning (leaving day):**

Jack had breakfast with the four others, talking to all of them, even if they didn't seem interested in talking to him. Jack made a special effort to talk to Noah, he wanted to explain to Noah that he was leaving, hoping that Noah would give at least some indication that he understood, but he didn't.

All too soon, breakfast was finished and Diana was beckoning Jack over to go to the locker room with her to get his belongings. Nodding to Diana, Jack turned Noah who, as always, didn't even look his way. Jack smiled slightly at the boy though, he'd spent a long time around Noah, he was gonna miss him- even if it 'didn't' work vice versa.

Carefully Jack placed his arms around Noah's still sitting form and hugged him, "I'll write and I'll, I'll try and visit sometime I promise, just don't forget about me yeah?". Jack stepped back from the unresponsive boy (He wished he had some kind of momento he could leave Noah with- but there wasn't anything) and nodded to him, "I'll see ya sometime soon huh Noah?", Jack gave Noah another small smile, before running over to go with Diana.

* * *

The staff began to clear the cafeteria and guide the patients to where they should go, as Noah was guided up and out of the cafeteria, his right hand twitched as if attempting to re-grasp something, he muttered quietly "Bye Jack...".

* * *

Jack followed Diana through a labrinyth of corridors, nearly at the locker room when he heard a very recognisable voice, "You forgot yer 'makeup'!". Jack glanced around, he could see Joe, but he had a pretty good idea where he would be, "Hey Diana, can I just go to the toilet... I gotta...". Diana nodded and Jack walked briskley back through the labrinyth to the toilets.

But there was no Joe to be seen... Exasperated, Jack stepped over to the wall with the crack in it (where he kept his eyeliner and sharperner). He collected them up and heard a noise, he swung around to see Joe standing a little distance from him, his arms folded and his face indifferent.

"Joe!", Jack exclaimed, "I'm glad I found you!". "Just say your goodbyes and go...", Joe muttered. "Your watch, I found it!", Jack said, ignoring Joe's bitter words, and pulling out the consealed watch to show Joe.

Joe's eyes instantly widened and he smiled slightly (forgetting his previous anger), "Huh, I'd almost forgotten what that looked like...", Joe reached out to grasp the watch from Jack's grasp, but his hand merely filtered straight through it.

Jack gave Joe a sad smile, but Joe shook his head and grinned, "Listen Jack, you take it, it's not like I could hold onto it anyway. Just try to figure out someway of using it to ID me if you can, maybe take it to my dad if can find him... but if you can't- well, at least one of us got out safe enough".

Jack and Joe awkwardly embraced each other and then found they couldn't let go, "You take care Jack!", Joe muttered. "Yeah...", Jack whispered, "You too".

"Jack!", came Diana's impatient voice, "It's time to go!". Jack and Joe both jumped away from each other as if the fire alarms had just gone off. They laughed at each other's suprise and Joe gave a more cheerful grin, "I'll walk with you to the exit".

* * *

Dressed in the clothes Jack had originally gone to the mental ward in, Jack realised he'd definetly grown, since his clothes were now no longer baggy and his favorite (though a tad small) black cloak no longer actually fit him and he'd had to put it in the white ward-supplied backpack which he was carrying on his back.

They walked to the exit doors, then waited while Diana found and used her card key (more easier to get in than out).

"Hey this isn't goodbye ya know?", Jack whispered so hopefully Diana wouldn't hear- she didn't. "Yeah," Joe muttered softly as he watched Jack walk to the (now open) exit door, "I know...".

Staying in step with Diana, Jack followed her through the big glass automatic doors.

He'd forgotten how bright a morning sun could be...

* * *

**I don't think it's ever taken this long to create just one chapter, but anyways... hope you enjoyed it, and now some responses to reviewers (because I just simply like reponding, lol):**

**Question Sleep -Nakita: **Lol, glad you enjoyed the story, plz continue to read and review!

**foxlover101: **You're glad I updated, I'm glad you reviewed... everyone's a winner, lol.

**Randomnessgirl1: **Your wish has been granted- another chapter! Lol...

**Karmahitme66543: **Glad for the review and would be thankfull for the cookies... if Jack hadn't just run off with them all instead! (redhead dot on the horizon laughs and eats all the cookies) Lol.

**Light Ebony Dark Ivory: **Lol, thnx didn't know my chapter was that scary though... (re-reads own chapter and runs out the room screaming).

**Zayn noob: **Lol, yeah, hearing analog clocks at night can be creepy, especially if the room doesn't actually contain an analog clock...

**kisshufan4ever: **You are awesome! I've never had one same person review that much, so thnx, hope you enjoyed the chapter and plz continue to read and review, lol.

**Story Thief: **I'm glad you enjoyed the story so much, and thnx for the review, as for whether the Xiaolin dragons find out about Jack... you'll just have to wait and see, lol.

**Soul Sonata: **Cool, thanks for the review, I'm gonna have to look into that whole 'Johnny the homicidal manic' thing, lol... So is that cartoon series or what?

**Zarth-Krayt:** Lol, I think Jack's gonna keeping getting in trouble, or trouble's gonna keep finding him anyways... plz keep readin and reviewin, lol.

**Ritsuka189: **I've finally updated! So I hope you enjoyed it, as you can see there'll probably be no need to clone any of the ward staff for further story use... 'probably', lol.

**xxxemo-princess666xx: **Glad you liked the history of the eyeliner lol, Diana didn't seem to take that part quite as well as Joe did...


	13. To be wanted

_(Side-note, listened to piano score of one last wish to write the last half of this chap, dunno how well it goes with the story though)._

Hi, sorry this took such a ridiculously long time. Gonna be completely honest here, 'basically' put, I got incredibly stressed during summer, attempted death several times, meanwhile a great guy I knew died from a heart attack, which you'd think would deter me from my self-destructive mission but, nope. Anyways, that's why I really didn't feel up to pushing past my writer's block and focusing on writing another 4000 word (general amount) chapter. But finally, after many, many days/weeks/months of trying, the new chapter is here... Don't you just love that new chapter smell? Lol.

I'll apologise in advance and say that (hopefully for this chapter only) I won't be responding to the many, many reviews I recieved from the last chapter, as, if I tried at the pace I'm going, this story would probably spend yet another month unpublished. I would however like to thank everyone who reviewed and continued to review:

**kisshufan4ever, tired of waiting, yaoifanfake, KittyBatMeowSqueek, love em, thablueGRRL, the girl with many names, Guest, Light Ebony Dark Ivory, Mr. Schyzo, Randomnessgirl1, kitsunesecret, He's-Awesome-and-Eternal, mochikita, Karmahitme66543, Zayn noob, He's-Awesome-and-Eternal.**

Thankyou all so much, your reviews really inspired me to continue writing this story.

Anyways, I am going to say (a hopefully once in a lifetime occurance), that this chapter is dedicated to both you brilliant reviewers and T-Boy: wherever you are, I hope you're happy my friend.

...And I hope you all enjoy the new chapter:

**Warniing:** Watche out for ,, spel,ling and garmmar msitake!S!

**Disclaimer:** 'As said before I own the whole world, everything in it and that includes Xiaolin Showdown', (Timelessdemon) glances around at skeptical onlookers, 'Why does no-one 'ever' believe me?!'.

* * *

"Come on Jack" Diana singsonged, needlessly coaxing the excited Jack through the car park, "Your parents weren't able to collect you, but apparently another member of your family volunteered". The still smiling Jack (saddened about Joe but still, just glad to be on the outside) gave Diana a sideways glance. A family member actually wanted to collect him?! Must be a double-blessing, Jack smirked to himself as he thought of this but immediately stopped before Diana could notice and ask why.

They stopped near a blue family sized car with darkened windows. Before moving any futher, Jack was turned to face the crocodile tears of Diana who bent down to give him a hug, "Good luck Jack, if you ever feel down or want to talk just give us a call alright?". "Ok" Jack replied, his rolling eyes hidden from view as Diana gave him a final pat on the back and straightened up, looking towards the opening car door.

Jack's still ecstatically smiling face shone as he turned to face the blue car and well dressed driver who stepped out of it.

Almost comically, Jack's face fell instantly before taking on a more rigid, almost scared look as the slightly sun-tanned Turner smiled, walked over and needlessly crouched down to Jack's level.

"Hi Jack, how have you been? Are you excited about going home?". Jack didn't move and just continued to stare worriedly at Turner's feet (too panicked to look him in the eye). Turner laughed lightly, smiling good-naturely to Diana and the two guards (who'd followed Jack outside), mouthing the word 'shy' to them before gently smiling at Jack again, "Don't worry we don't blame you for what happened, you needed help, and letting you stay up that late was probably the worse thing I could have done, I know that now".

Turner remained silent for a further minute, attempting to talk through his eyes to the unresponsive Jack. Finally, Turner gave up and just smiled even brighter, "Why don't you come over here and give your uncle a big hug? Come on!". Jack looked at Turner's out stretched arms, to the enthusastic Diana and finally to the institute (wishing more than anything that Joe was with him right now).

"Go on!", Coaxed Diana, mentally knocking Jack out his previous thoughts and physically knocking him closer towards Turner's outstretched arms. Turner immediately came closer and encased Jack within his muscular iron-like grip, planting a fatherly kiss on top of his forehead before letting go and ushering Jack towards and into the passenger side seat before another word could be said.

Closing the passenger door, Turner turned to face Diana, "So, do I need to sign anything or...?".

* * *

As Turner and the others continued to talk, Jack rigid in the passenger seat, his heart did a marathon the width of Tokyo in less than a minute. What was he meant to do?

Did he A: Just get out and tell Diana about Turner- potentially having her call him paranoid and be sent back the institute?

B: Remain in the car and hope nothing happened?

C: Wait until the car had driven so far, jump out and make a run for it?

Or D: Save himself some time and just start running now?

A, B, C OR D?! Choose now!

...Why did he suddenly feel like he was in very dark version of the millionaire game show in which there was no 50/50, no ask the audience and absolutely 'no' chance to phone a friend- no friends to call.

Jack's rapid breathing hitched as he heard muttering voices begin to quarrel within his head, changing pitch and tone as each one took their turn to argue.

Male voice:** I vote you tell her, what's the worst that can happen? She already knows you're mental ye crazy bastard. **

Adult female voice:** He can't tell her! He'll never leave! **

Low male voice:** Yeah Jack, you'll die here, death, just like what's gonna happen to ye if ye stay here.**

Young male:** You really think he's takin yer back home? Stay Jackie, your only real friends are here. **

**You belong here. **

**You're fuckin crazy! You won't survive one day.**

**Either way you look at you're gonna die.**

** Leave before they make you stay forever. **

**Don't do that, you're gonna die if you stay **

**You're gonna die if you go, you Fucking crazy bastard **

**Don't worry, Turner lOvEs you, he'll make it look like an accident...**

**Run before he gets you. ****Stay and she'll take you back. ****You're gonna die. ****Nothing matters you're dead already. **

**Run. **

**Stay. **

**Run. **

**STAY. **

**RUN. **

**STAY!. **

**RUN!-**

The unrelenting voices silenced suddenly as Turner yanked open the car door, got into the driver's seat and (almost as if reading Jack's mind), pressed the multi-lock, making all doors now un-exitable.

Breathing slowly out through his nose, Jack clenched his fists and stared at the floor, trying to ignore the internal judder as Turner started up the car.

"Well, we're ready to go now!" Turner grinned, pushing down a button on his side so both his and Jack's windows lowered 'slightly', "Bye Diana! Thankyou! - go on say goodbye Jack!". Jack put on a brave face, smiled and waved, not knowing what else to do as the car continued on it's journey out of the parking lot, leaving the institute to become nothing but a fading siloette in the rear view mirror

* * *

**3 hours later:**

The drive had been quite uneventful, Turner had left the radio on for the most of it, preventing them from saying much to the other, not that Jack had anything he particularly wanted to say. Jack continued to gaze out of the passenger window, watching the cars speed past, blue, red, yellow, blue, blue, silver, red, blue, turn...

Jack turned his head to look up at Turner as they took a detour towards a car park. "Where are we going?", Jack bit out, trying not to show the ominous feeling of dread he now felt. "Service station", came the smiling reply, "Haven't had anything to eat all day and I'm sure you wouldn't mind an early lunch either".

* * *

**5 Minutes Later:**

Jack sat in the diner, quietly playing with one of the folded menu cards while Turner tried to attact the attention of one of the waitresses.

Jack continued to finch slightly at the constant, unrelenting sound of cutlery from the surrounding tables, he hated being here, the amount of people was sufficating and the noise was loud and uncontrolled. That was just the problem, he'd spent most of the last 9 months of his life in a quiet controlled setting- everything else on the outside was terrifying, the sounds, the smells, the abundance of unknown people and how they smiled or frowned at you in passing for no real reason.

Just as Jack began to wish for the nth time that he was back at the institute, a waitress finally turned up at their table and started to take down the order. "And what will he be having today sir?", the waitress finally asked, glancing to the very uncomfortable looking red-haired boy who stared at the table and said nothing.

"Well Jack", smiled Turner, "What will it be?". Jack glanced up at the two staring faces, he quietly muttered jibberish, hoping they'd take it as some sort of order, before bringing his blushing face back down towards the table and pretending to focus on the now crumpled menu he had in his hands.

The waitress looked from Jack to Turner before mouthing 'Is he ok?'. Turner nodded holding one of his hands infront of himself mouthing 'He's a bit shy', before speaking up and saying, "Did you say you wanted the cheeseburger, fries and Coke, Jack?". Jack nodded, more than anything just wanting the lady to go so she would stop staring at him.

"Thanks", Jack muttered as he heard the waitress finally walk off in search of another table. Turner shrugged, "No problem, ...How are you looking forward to your birthday anyway? Only 6 weeks awwwwwaaaaaaaaay". Jack involunteraly laughed as Turner elongated the last word and made an odd movement with one of his hands like he was sprinkling glitter.

Finally calming down, Jack smiled slightly and replied that six weeks was ages, Turner merely shrugged, glad to have Jack talking properly, "Even so... What would 'you' like for your birthday?". Jack blushed slightly and shrugged , the only people who ever gave him birthday presents were his parents and he wasn't too sure if he should really accept a present off Turner, the most dangerous yet nicest guy he'd met possibly ever.

Turner grinned, giving a mock shock-horror look at the shrug, "An eleven year old boy not knowing what he wants for his own birthday? What is this world coming to?! Ah, don't worry kiddo, we'll find you somethin ay?". Jack grinned and continued to truly enjoy Turner's company throughout the whole dinner.

* * *

**2 hours later:**

Jack sat in the car with Turner, quietly playing around with the volume and tracks on the car radio, not noticing until Turner unlocked both their doors that he'd actually arrived back at home.

Not waiting for a word from Turner, Jack jumped out of the car and ran over to his house door pushing down the bell and relishing in the familiar doorbell sound. He was going to try this time, he was going to be nice, he was going to be normal, he was going to be the best son ever and his parents were going to love him for it!

Tapping his foot with anticipation, Jack gave the doorbell a second ring, his heartbeat sped up as he heard movement, eventually seeing the door open to reveal both his parents.

"Mom, dad!", Jack yelled exictedly jumping forward and attempting to hug them both.

His mother jumped away in fright (still remembering the cup scene), whereas his father merely took a step back and shot a formal warning look towards his mentally ill son.

As if he had been burned, Jack pulled his out stretched arms back and let them drop to his sides, gazing towards the floor and giving a slow nod in understanding, waiting there until Turner arrived on the doorstep next to him.

"Ah, Turner", Jack's father said, finally cracking a smile and looking over Jack's shoulder toward his brother-in-law (Turner), "I trust Jack hasn't given you any trouble?". "No, no he's been fine", Turner grinned back, ruffling Jack's hair who smiled lightly in responce. "Very good" Jack's father replied, "Would like to come in for a cup of coffee or?".

Turner checked his watch and then shook his head at Jack's dad, "Maybe another time, I've got to get back". Jack's father nodded in understanding, "Very well, I'll see you soon Turner", not waiting for Jack follow, Jack's father walked away from the door leaving a saddened Jack and an almost apologetic looking Turner on the doorstep.

Jack sighed, shouldering his ward issued kit bag and getting ready to trundle into the mansion when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked up towards Turner who gave a warm empathetic smile, "Hey, I'll see you soon alright?", Turner bent down and gave him a hug. Initially jumping slightly in suprise, Jack returned the hug, ignoring the half of him that sent out alarm bells and merely focusing on the other half that just wanted to be told that after nine long months he was still cared for and thought about by at least one person, to him that was all that truly mattered.

* * *

**2 Hours later in Jack's room:**

'Dah-dah daaa dah dahdahdah dah daah daah dah dah dah dah dah dAAAaaaaAAAA!' Jack shrugged to himself as he once again lost at Sonic, he'd been playing that game near non-stop for the last hour and a half (his parents saying they'd be busy till dinner), he'd been so close this time, soooo close... Still, he had the rest of his life to finish it...

It was weird really now he thought about it, he used to throw down the controller, get irritated, even occasionally kick something for having lost the game- He didn't do any of that now. Being under near constant observation at the institute meant that everytime he lost his temper he was 'corrected' for it. He realised it had gotten to the point now where it was almost an effort to even slightly get annoyed over something which (after 9 months) seemed so trivial.

Not knowing what to make of this sudden knowledge, Jack shrugged to himself, deciding instead to press reset on his game console and start again.

Pressing Start as Sonic appeared on the screen and waved his index finger, Jack thought back to his past at the institute, despite the hardship, the control and the meddling staff, he still already missed the place, the few friends he'd made... he missed Joe. Thinking suddenly, Jacked pressed the pause button on the game, jumped off the bed and grabbed his ward issued kit bag, rumaging around it until he found what he was looking for -the watch-.

Jack looked at it as he slowly walked back and sat on his bed, turning the mysterious item over and reveling in the intricasy of it.

**So, what is that? **The slightly Russian accented voice asked, making Jack jump, before looking behind to see the shadow-like figure who continued to look at the pocket watch- Adria.

Jack remained silent, staring back at the watch and prentending not to hear her.

**Jack, we both know you can hear me**, Adria continued in her calm yet slightly detached tone.

**Jack!**, Adria shouted, causing Jack to instinctively drop the watch to the soft bed and cover both ears as he swung around to stare at her, (she calmly sat cross-legged on his bed behind him).

**Why don't you talk to me anymore, we could always talk.**

"Yeah, always until 'you' got me admitted".

**Jack, don't do this, it's me... It's Adria, I'm your best friend**.

Jack rapidly shook his head, "No, I don't have a best friend and I am 'not' going back to that ward".

**I'm not going to leave you alone Jack, you're my best friend, and I will stay and look after you no matter what.**

"Gonna be a long wait", Jack quietly muttered, turning away on his bed and picking up the controller, attempting to ignore the feeling of the impression Adria made on his bed as she moved closer to watch him un-pause and continue to play the addictive game.

* * *

Both Jack and Adria looked up from the game as they heard a knock at the door, Jack quickly paused the game and went to answer it, a short, portly man stood outside, "Your mother and father have requested that you join them for dinner, young master", the formal man said before turning to go back downstairs.

"Thanks", Jack called after the man, closing the door and going to turn off the game (he hadn't got that far anyway). Jack wondered why his parents only tended to have servants working at the mansion while 'they' lived there, he'd certainly never seen that guy before. Shrugging to himself, Jack walked out of his room to the bathroom, cleaning his teeth and tending to himself in the mirror (washing off any traces of his 'war-paint'), he knew that in order for his parents to want him, he had to look normal and that was just what he intended to do.

Giving himself a final look over, he turned to see Adria 'standing' there watching him again. Jack bit his lip, "Please, leave me alone, just for one night, please! I want to give my parents the right impression, just leave me alone for this one night, please!". Blinking slowly, Adria gave a slight nod, remaining in the same spot as she watched Jack race out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

* * *

**At the dinner table:**

They all sat there quietly at the designer oak dinner table, the occasional scrape of untensil being the only sound in the large room. Eventually their starters were taken away and replaced with the main course, it was half-way through it that Jack realised if he didn't attempt to make some sort of conversation no one would.

Deciding it was now or never, Jack cleared his throat and tried, "So... how have you both been?". "We've been working Jack", Came the clipped reply from his father.

Jack shook his head, "No... I just meant in general". "Working is what we do in general", his mother stated. "Well, yeah", Jack tried, "But surely you do other things?". His father huffed, finally looking up from his half-finished meal, to Jack, "Your mother and I are not children, we have bills to pay, a roof to keep over our heads!".

Without thinking, Jack calmly but sarcastically replied, "What's the point, you hardly ever live here anyway".

The sudden silence of utensils was almost deafening, his father turned in his seat and glared at the suddenly uncomfortable Jack, "What was that?".

"What?", Jack mumbled.

"That!", his father half yelled, " ...Is that what they teach you there Jack? To be rude and ungrateful for the home we provide for you".

"Please I didn't mean...".

"You half-traumatised your own mother pulling that little stunt with the crockery shard at Turner's house... Do you have 'any' idea how your illness has affected us?!".

Jack knew he should have taken it, kept quiet, apologised despite everything, act with the calm demenor that had been conditioned into him, but something inside him broke at these words and he argued back, "How it affected you?! I was kept locked away for 9 months, no visits, no calls, nothing. Do you have any idea what it's like to cry yourself to sleep every night, convincing yourself that your parents are going to come in the morning and get you, only to be disappointed every, single, day. Do you have any idea how hard that is? DO YOU?!".

Jack stopped, breathing in and out rapidly before glancing over the table, back at his parents. His mother was now drawn even further away from the table and his father was shaking his head rapidly muttering, "Agressive outbursts like this! It's a wonder they let you out at all!".

"Agressive outbursts?" Jack laughed hysterically, "You're calling 'this' an outburst!". His mother nervously moved, further away from Jack and closer towards his father who glared back, "Go to your room, go to your room now or I will get someone to take you up". Glaring angrily at the floor, Jack got up from the table and stormed up to his room by himself.

* * *

Finally inside, Jack closed the door and began to pace his room, 'outburst'! They were calling what he'd done an 'outburst ', how dare they!

Yelling, Jack kicked a wall angrily, laying in his foot again and again before turning to his closet and punching that rapidly, screaming for all he was worth, not caring about his hurting limbs or whether his parents could hear him.

Finally stopping, Jack drew his attention to his clothes covered bed, he stormed over, wildly throwing everything that wasn't meant to be on there at the floor and walls. Eventually his hand grasped around something small and circular, as if a switch had been turned off, Jack stopped yelling and sat down on his bed, looking at the watch, letting his fingertips gently trace it before putting it down on the bedside table next to him.

_He had just wanted his parents to love him and now look what he'd done, he'd thrown a fit, he'd be sent back for sure... He'd ruined everything!_. A small whimper escaped his mouth and his entire body began to tremble. He grabbed his bed covers and threw them over himself, finally crying loudly in the darkness of them.

** Jack? Are you okay?** Adria's voice sounded from inside the bedroom. Upon hearing her voice, Jack immediately silenced his sobs, involuntarily hiccuping occassionally as he waited under the bedsheets for her to go away. Unpreturbed by his lack of communication, Adria continued, **Mind if I sit on the bed with you?**.

"No, no", Jack muttered, popping his head up from under the sheets and shaking it rapidly, meaning he didn't want her to. She sat regardless and carefully scooted closer until she was next to him, he didn't pull away, almost leaning into the strange warm sensation she seemed to radiate.

Wordlessly, she carefully extended an arm and laid it across the top half of his blanket covered body. Almost instictively he grabbed hold of the arm and pulled it closer around himself, not wanting to lose out on the one piece of comfort anyone in this house would give him. She allowed it, bringing forth her other arm to gently smooth his ruffled hair.

As Jack relaxed in her arms, she moved closer and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, **I love you Jack.** At just those four simple words, Jack began to sob, his one dream of being loved finally full-filled. Adria smiled gently, wrapping her one arm tighter around his body and using the other to gently stroke his bare right arm in a downward motion, shush-ing him as she did so.

As the night drew on, Jack slowly drifted in and out of consiousness, continuing to lie on his side, with his right arm wrapped around himself and his left gently stroking his right upper arm, shushing himself occassionally as he silenced his crying and slowly sucumbed to sleep.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please read and review, I'll 'try' to get another chapter published soon ...Unless everyone's had enough of these...?**


	14. Home

The 'real' chapter 14!

Phew! Made it! I don't know what timeline everyone's currently in, but where I am, I've managed to finish this chapter before 2014, ha ha!

Special thanks to** anon, GeorgieGirl999, foxlover101, TeggitNeko, kisshufan4ever, bbst, Animelover Inf, Deda Altesse, CrystalIce AngelBlossom, Light Ebony Dark Ivory, OmiCat, Koomba, Fatal OverDose, Imyoshi, Manny Heatlook **and** hi hi 1234**, your reviews really help convince me to kept at these chapters, hopefully I'll have another chapter finished by the weekend.

Please read and review.

* * *

Jack lay on his side, within the impossibly white padded room, his arms restricted from movement by the tight straight jacket forced on him days ago by ward staff. He breathed in and out slowly, trying to ignore the dark threatening figures by closing his eyes, but having no way to cover his ears to keep the voices out.

The voices, the voices were unrelenting Jack groaned as if in pain and scooted over to a side of the room, attempting to bury his head into the padded corner of the wall as the dark whispering continued. **We will watch you, We will watch you, Will you watch you fall, We will watch you, Watch you, Watch you fall, WATCH YOU FALL! WATCH YOU FALL! ! ...The world's a lie... We're coming for you Jackie, The world's a lie and 'we're' coming for you all. You're gonna die Jackie... You're all gonna-**

-CREAK-

The reinforced quiet room door opened and an unknown nurse walked in. Jack breathed in and flipped onto his back, propping himself up against the wall so his desperate eyes could look up into her brown ones as she smiled and spoke gently to him, "I've brought you some more medicine, and some food for after-".

"Please!", Jack cried out, "Make them stop, it won't stop, they won't stop, I just want everything to stop!". He shuddered and wept, "I'm scared, please let me out, I'll do anything, please!"

"That's what the medicine's for Jack", the nurse calmly answered, used to overy 'excited' patients.

Jack shook his head rapidy talking to her as she took a needle out of her bag and prepared it, "It doesn't work, it never works, just help me please!".

The nurse smiled, "I 'am' going to help you, alright? 'This' will help you". The nurse bent down to his level and stabbed the needle into the side of his neck, he screamed and struggled, blinking against the pain. The nurse grinned a disgusting smile, the smile got wider and wider, her face paling and her eyes almost seeming to sizzle and melt, leaving two gaping holes with bright purple light shining from them - The mankin!

The white manikin stood over him, grinning widely, it's piercing purple eyes staring down to Jack. Jack shrieked in horror, attempting to use his bare feet to push himself away across the floor, the straight jacket and pills not helping matters.

His back shoved against the wall, Jack stared up towards the slow moving manikin as it shifted closer and closer, until it stood directly infront of Jack. Still smirking, the manikin took out a knife from behind it's back and grinned wider, it brought the knife back and plunged.

* * *

Jack screamed, opening his eyes and panting as he looked around his room, he was home, it was a dream... It was all a dream.

He sat on the side of his bed and sighed. **Are you okay?** The Russian voice asked. "Yeah, Adria", Jack quietly replied to the dark entity currently sitting cross legged on top of his clothes cupboard, "Just another nightmare". Adria blinked and looked out of the window.

Jack sighed as he got up and checked his alarm clock '6.30am', it was school today, the first day. "Yipee", Jack stated to himself without enthusiasm, Adria remained silent, continuing to stare out of the window as Jack got ready for his first day of secondary school.

He'd been back home for two weeks now, he hadn't done much, his parents had phoned the institution in the morning after his outburst, the institute had prescribed him pills to keep him calm. His parents remarked on how well the pills worked at making him calm- Despite the fact that he hadn't taken any since he'd been prescribed them.

His school shirt and trousers on, Jack pulled on his blazer and stared down at himself, it looked okay it was a sort of black and red combo, in someways he sort of prefered being at schools where uniforms were required, at least it should be easier to blend into the crowd, and of course the uniform didn't look 'too' bad infact it was kind of- Itchy!

Jack grunted and began to scratch at his blazer covered arms, why did uniforms always have to be itchy?!. Adria glanced over, **You alright?** "Yeah", muttered Jack, giving his shoulder a final itch before striking a pose and grinning to the dark entity who stared at him from the top of his cupboard, "How do I look?". **Awful**, Adria replied as she shrugged. Jack pulled a face, sarcastically replying, "Thanks", as he pulled on his black school shoes and headed downstairs.

Jack walked to the bottom of the staircase and into the ground floor kitchen, his mother was in there sat at a table, going through some sort of paperwork. "Morning Mom", Jack said, walking in and sitting opposite her, craning his neck to see what she was reading. Not giving eye contact, his mother brought the paper closer to herself before sternly answering, "Jack, your medication".

Figuring that was as close to a conversation as they were going to get, Jack ridgidly got back up and walked over to the cupboard above the sink, he took out a dark bottle containing red pills.

His mother watching him, he screwed off the top, exageratedly taking out one of the red pills and swallowing it without water. Watching him, his mother shook her head, "I don't know how you manage that without water", she sighed as she got up and walked out of the kitchen (taking her papers with her).

"No", Jack muttered, glancing to a smirking Adria as he spat his pill out into the sink (it fell through the sink hole and out of view), "Neither do I".

* * *

**30 Minutes Later, Outside The School Gates:**

"Your school, Master Spicer", the elderly chauffer droned, holding the door of the limo open for Jack. "Thanks", Jack muttered, wishing the highly conspicuous white limosine he was getting of could have been parked further away from his school. Followed by Adria, he quickly got out and hurried towards the school before too many people noticed him.

The school grounds were already crowded when Jack walked in, unsure of what to do, he hung around an empty corner of the grounds. **You really want me to be here?** Adria calmly asked. Jack shrugged looking around himself before shrugging again and replying, "At least I'll know one person around here-".

Jack stopped talking as a small group of students walked by, they carried on walking, having not noticed the one way conversation. **Maybe you 'shouldn't' talk out loud to me today**, Adria muttered, Jack quickly nodded.

"WILL ALL SEVENTH GRADERS PLEASE MAKE A LINE IN FRONT OF THE SOUTH WALL", an elderly female teacher shouted, causing a sudden quiet within the school grounds as pupils turned to see the teacher pointing to a large white wall.

**It's showtime!** Adria smirked, following Jack as he sighed, shouldered his rucksack and headed over to the wall.

Lining up, Jack glanced around himself, there were few people he recognised from his old school, but his three main bullies didn't seem to be there at all. Maybe this was it then, maybe it was a new start where he could expect to make new friends without being over-shadowed by his enemies, maybe he was finally-.

"Oh my god, look there he is! Proper freak as always right?", a brown haired girl laughed (one of Jack's three original bullies), as she walked towards him with the other two bullies in toe. "Jack Spicer!", the three screeched loudly at him as they walked up to queue right behind him, earning a shush from a passing teacher. The three laughed anyway, earning a hoot of quiet laughter from the surrounding students.

Abigail, Bert and Carl (the three bullies) smirked to each other before moving even closer towards Jack, Jack turned his head slightly to look at them, they all looked more or less the same as when he was in primary school, save for Carl, who looked like he'd stolen and eaten just a few too many kid's school lunches.

"So where you bin huh gin-ger?", Bert smirked, folding his arms across his slim frame, "Me and Abi here thought you'd moved school just to avoid us".

Carl laughed moving towards Jack and pointing a finger, "Really? I heard he got put in a crazy house after the teachers found out what a total FREAK he is!". The lined up crowd of 7th graders all began to laugh at this. Jack had to angrily bit at the inside of his lip, to prevent himself from responding back, _'had someone told them about his stay at the institute?'_. Jack's arm jumped slightly as he felt Adria's cold claw-like hand grasp his wrist, she whispered, **Ignore them, they know 'nothing'.**

Sighing, Jack knew Adria was probably right, he turned back to face the towards the wall, as the teachers had previously requested.

"Aww! What's wrong?", Abigail asked in a babyish voice, poking Jack in the back, "Is little Jackie gonna cry?". Surrounding students began to laugh even more so, looking at and beginning to make unplesant comment about the obviously unhappy red haired boy.

Jack glared at the ground, knowing that he needed to stop it now before his wimpy reputation followed him through this school as well, he swung around to face the three and glared, moving towards Abigail (who was closest to him) and pointing a finger, "YOU KNOW WHAT-".

"OY! YOU!". Jack faltered, he turned to see an aged male teacher, angrily walking over to him, "IT'S HARDLY THE FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL AND I FIND YOU VERBALLY ATTACKING A FEMALE STUDENT?!".

Jack pulled a face, "Wha, but I didn't-", he glanced to Abigail who had forced herself to start crying, she smirked through the tears at him, when the aged teacher wasn't looking.

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!", the aged man yelled in Jack's face, Jack blinked slightly, trying to stay calm while answering-. "YOUR NAME?!", the teacher belowed once again, earning a chorus of muted laughter throughout the crowd of 7th year students.

"Jack Spicer, Sir", Jack muttered, staring at the ground, ignoring the sound of the quietly laughing seventh graders who repeated what he'd just said with a mocking tone.

"Well Mister Spicer", the teacher said, glaring at the worried looking Jack, "Looks like you've earned yourself the first detention of the year, I wonder how your parents will take it when I phone and tell them. Do you think they'll be happy?". "No", Jack muttered, the teacher made a disapproving sound and continued to glare, prompting Jack to correct himself, "No, Sir". The teacher nodded, "That's better, now I suggest you apologise to this young lady, I'll have a member of staff escort you to my office at lunch".

With that, the male teacher left, the line began to move forward, towards an assembly hall, stopping anyone else from throwing jibes Jack's way. **Fucking asshole!** Adria angrily muttered, glaring distastefully after the male teacher, **I vote we put tacks on his chairs and have them spike their way up his pimply fat ass!**

"Adria", Jack sighed, his voice almost hidden as he walked next to her, caught within the loud confusing crowd of 7th graders, "Just leave it".

* * *

**4:15pm Inside Jack's Bedroom:**

Jack sighed and flopped down on his bed, he'd had enough for today, no, he'd had enough point blank. The assembly had been alright, but after that, the bullying had just got worse and worse, by the end of the first school day almost everyone from the first year seemed to know his name. Oddly enough, that wasn't a good thing, everyone seemed to either ignore him or imitate his three bullies, basically making him a joke before he could even attempt to make friends, so much for a new start.

The only thing he guessed he could be grateful for was that he hadn't hallucinated at all during the day, (well there was Adria but she didn't really count). Speaking of which, **You alright?**, came Adria's apathetic voice. "Not really", Jack replied, his voice muffled as he kept his head buried into his mattress, not bothering to look at her. He felt an impression on the bed as she sat down next to him, she sighed slightly and remained quiet for a while before breaking the silence, **These walls are too bright**.

Jack glanced up slightly, looking around, "Yeah, yeah they are".** I thought you hated white now**.

Jack turned to lie on his back, breathing out slightly as he leant the back of his head against the bed's soft pillows and stared up at the white ceiling attached to white walls. She was right, he did hate it, ever since he came back from the asylum he'd hated it, white, the purest of all colours, used to portray kindness and innocence when that was the exact opposite of what those asylum walls had truly contained.

**Let's go get some paint, there's some in the basement isn't there?** Jack sat up, glancing at Adria worriedly, "Won't Mom be angry if we paint?". Adria stopped at the door, looking back and asking him sarcastically,** When was the last time she was actually happy with anything you did?**

* * *

**Outside Jack's bedroom:**

They snuck silently down the staircase and walked into the ground floor hallway, trying not to let his parents see him, he somehow had an idea they wouldn't want him to paint- . "Jack", Came his mother's voice, as she suddenly walked into the hallway from the kitchen and saw him, "I didn't realise you were back home already?".

Jack hesitated and looked up at her as she walked closer to him, "Yeah, sorry Mom". "How was your first day at school?", she asked. Jack's brow forrowed, she never asked him how his day was, he tried to keep the suprise out of his voice, "It was... Okay, I guess... Why?".

His mother shrugged, smiling in a slightly sarcastic manner, "Oh, nothing... It's just a teacher phoned, he said you threatened a girl at school".

"I didn't", Jack answered, trying to ignore his angry looking father who, hearing the commotion, had also walked into the hallway. Father stood next to Jack's mother, giving Jack an I'm-more-superior-than-you look.

His mother glared at Jack, "Well according to this teacher you did, are you not taking your pills? Or is there another reason you have for attacking an eleven year old girl?".

Jack shook his head, ignoring Adria whispering something unpleasant about his parents, as he fruitlessly tried to get his mother to his point of view, "But I didn't she-".

His mother angrily shook her head in responce, massaging her temples with her manicured fingertips, "Jack, I don't even want to hear it, me and your father were 'going' to leave you here on your own when we go back to work, but that stunt you pulled has been proof enough. You're obviously not well enough to look after yourself, tomorrow we're phoning Sophia to see if she's still okay with looking after you, if not we'll just have to find another avaliable sitter who can handle you".

Jack glared, frustration filling his voice, "I don't 'need' handling!".

His father frowned, speaking up at last, "Considering your previous 'problems' I find that quite a dubious claim".

Jack was desperate, he didn't want to be 'taken care of' by Sophie or anyone else from that same organisation, "But... But what about Turner?". **Really pulling at straws aren't we?**, Adria sarcastically asked, Jack ignored her.

"Turner?", his father repeated as if unsure that he'd heard his son correctly.

Jack forced a grin, "Yeah, he said he wanted to see more of me".

His father still held an unsure expression, "You really think he'd be interested in looking after you?".

Jack nodded quickly, "Yes! ...And, and also, it would cost a lot less money for you than an 'actual' sitter".

His mother looked to his father with a quizzical expression, "What do you think?". His father shrugged, "Wouldn't hurt, I'll give him a call". Jack smiled to himself slightly as he watched his two parents walk off to the living room to make a phone call. Adria glanced to him, **I sure hope you know what you're doing Jack**. "Yeah", Said Jack glancing at her slightly before going to follow his parents, "Me too".

* * *

**One Month Later:**

Jack stood infront of his clothes cupboard, rumaging around, trying to find something suitable to wear for the 'birthday suprise' that Turner had apparently planned for him.

Today was his birthday, his parents had left just over a week ago and Turner had been checking in on him every day in the afternoon, at first he'd felt uncomfortable about having the seemingly unpredictable man around constantly, but he's slowly grown to enjoy Turner's company.

Except for weekends, his days usually entailed him being woken up at 7:00am by his parent's favourite butler/driver, who'd follow him to the kitchen once he'd gotten dressed in his bedroom.

The butler would make him some breakfast, watch to make sure he took his pill and then drive him to school, they'd sometimes talk about tv shows or something (nothing too serious). After school, the butler would pick him up and drop him off to be alone at the mansion, Turner would then come over at about 5pm (ocassionally bringing Eliza with him), where he'd converse, joke around and help Jack make his own dinner.

Admittedly, things were still going badly in school, his teachers didn't like him, his peers hated him and his three main enemies were just plain horrible, but at least he now had something to look forward to when he was home, people like the butler and Turner who actually talked and joked with him like he was a friend, and that was what kept him going.

Finding some clothes, Jack glanced to Adria who sat on the bed, boredly watching him, "Could you look the other way?", he asked. Adria smirked slightly, **You're asking a figment of your own imagination not to look at yourself?** Jack gave a brief thoughtful look before answering, "Yes". Adria rolled her eyes, turning to face the wall while Jack got dressed for his birthday suprise, he jumped as he suddenly heard Turner calling him.

"Hey Jack! You ready?", Turner shouted from downstairs. "Yeah", Jack shouted back as he pulled a dark blue shirt over his head, "Hold on".

Jack went to walk down the stairs stopping suddenly as he saw Adria standing directly in front of him, glaring, **This is a bad idea Jack!** Jack shrugged at her, "Turner's okay". Adria growled slightly, bearing her teeth and looking angry, **I don't like him, he's dangerous!** Jack shrugged appathetically, "Well I'm going anyway, do you wanna come with me?". Adria tilted her head, **You need to ask?**

"Hey Jack!", Turner called up, "What's the hold up?". "Nothing Turner, I'm coming down", Adria shuffled to the side, letting Jack walk ahead of her, down towards Turner for his birthday suprise.

* * *

If you have any questions or points you wanna make about the chapter, send them in a review and I'll get back to you in the new chapter.

Sayonara!


End file.
